I don't know why, but nature has created many variations in the human
being. Some of us are tall, others are short, some are dark, some are
light, some have a perfect body, others have to struggle, some have a good
mind, others have a twisted heart. Whom do you feel sorrier for? Look at
all the girls and women who try to be thin according to what the media
shows us. They starve themselves, and many die.  I often wonder why TV
shows don't have more people with disabilities in them as part of normal
life circumstances. And then when they do have movies portraying people
with disabilities they either portray them as super atheletes, or the ones
that get cured, or the ones with chips on their shoulders.

There is a reason we have variety, perhaps we can’t see it, or know it, but
there is a higher reason for some to struggle more than others. Could it be
that those who struggle more are stronger than those to whom everything
comes more easily? In a world where normalcy and beauty are worshipped,
could it be that nature has other plans? Why not celebrate the diversity
instead of dreading it?

It must be hell on parents to see their children struggle with
disabilities; I know my own father grieves about mine. However, what good
is grieving, what purpose does it serve? It must be so hard when you look
at your beautiful child and you know that many people will not be able to
see their beauty, their light. Perhaps God has something else in mind when
she allows a child to have a disability. For it is in living that we grow
as human beings, it is in developing compassion for others that we grow
spiritually, it is in assisting others to become all they can be, that we
receive life’s richest blessing.

Therefore, no, please don’t try to mold us to look like, or sound like, or
move like, or think like everybody else. I won’t take up the cry for “the
cure” as I think God has it all planned. She has all this wonderful
diversity planned, and disability should be considered a normal part of
life, instead of an aberration.  Dry your tears, and see the real beauty in
life.

Even if you don’t believe in God, you can still appreciate all the
diversity in nature, you can still grow as a human being.

Tamar Mag Raine
Monday, August 9, 2004


Tamar Mag Raine
[log in to unmask]

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
-George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950

IM: tamarmag48
Oakland Mayor's Commission on People with disabilities