I wish I was normal
by Landra Whitehouse
Last night I went to a party. I was told of a young man who is about to lose his eye, which he has already lost the sight of, through a cosmetic operation to take the bump out of his nose.
In the pursuit of perfection he has destroyed the gift of sight which was granted to him.
Why did he do it? Because he was trapped in the pursuit of a dream. He fell into the trap set for us that as long as you have enough money you can be near perfect.
Yet I work with adults with physical and mental difficulties who do not have a chance of ever coming close to what that young man looked like with or without money.
Yet those adults never moan about what they do not have, they have never ever said to me, I wish I was normal; whatever normal is. Their response to what they have been dished out in this life is a positive one of what they do have, not dwelling on perfection or what someone else out there is telling them they deserve or should have.
How can you watch advertisements telling you that you ‘deserve’ anything? Do these adults deserve to have been born with disabilities? Do children deserve to starve to death in a world where food is thrown out by the ton?
My grandson asked me at this party if I would like to have a solid gold cup embellished with rubies, diamonds, sapphires and emeralds. I said I would be too afraid to have something of such monetary value. He said I could then afford guards to watch over it so it would be safe. I then said to him, how could I sit and look at something that cost that amount of money knowing there were children starving in this world.
Money is only good money when it is doing good. Money is nothing but a means of barter. I tried to explain to my grandson that if I had money then I could help others and perhaps stop some children from starving. He said yes but you could only help some. My answer, yes well everyone with money should help some and then the problem would be solved.
This all comes down to the disproportionate way money and capitalism has skewed the world and its wealth.
The only true wealth of this world is its ability to feed the people on its surface. What we have come to view as wealth is false. To have the fastest car in the world, or the most expensive, only matters to the small number of people who see you in this car. If I do not see you then I cannot hunger after what you have. In fact I do not hunger after what you have even if I see it in the media. A long time ago I stopped being trapped by attempts by other people to make me chase pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. I have found my pot of gold; it is my life; so any other materialistic aid has no value. We can train our minds to like anything. We can persuade ourselves to want less; we can be happier doing this than chasing false pots of gold.
It is about time everyone realized that there are only two ways in this world for everything, always only two choices, yes or no, up or down, in or out. If you want to spend your life in pursuit of something that does not really exist then fine, but you are not taking my family with you. They can now think for themselves.
