There is No Such Thing as a Disabled Human Being

(Written December 21, 2008)

If you know me well enough, you know that my "disability" is something I very rarely talk about, if ever at all. The reason I almost always give people for this has nothing to do with being ashamed or uncomfortable with it, but has more to do with my feeling that it is irrelevant to what makes me who I am. It says nothing about who I really am as a human being with a soul, so why talk about it? What's the point? So, why the heck would I be writing a note such as this? To a very large extent, I still feel this way, but I've also come to realize that the reasons behind why I don't talk about it really run a lot deeper than I've ever cared to express. It's about far more than simply how I see myself. For whatever reason, I feel that it is important to share now with people who are important to me, my feelings about this, so here goes!

An absolute core part of my beliefs that I hold very strongly to is that every single person has a very specific purpose or set of purposes that they are put on this planet to fulfill. It's all very individualized, and not one solitary person is exempt from this. Each person has their own gifts and talents that they can tap into to make this world a better place. And with these gifts, it is understood that this person will also have weaknesses, frailties, and other imperfections. No one is exempt from this either. Looking at things in this light, we may already be able to see that we are all on equal grounds.

Let me take this a step further. Assuming that every person does in fact have a purpose, then by implication, that includes you, me, your family, friends, neighbors, enemies (if you choose to have any), strangers, and even those with severe mental and/or physical "disabilities." I'm sorry, but I will always place that word between quotation marks. No matter who you are, we all have things that will attempt to hold us back; whether they be "disabilities," habits, laziness, clumsiness, addictions, misunderstandings...the list goes on forever. But none of these things define us. And more important, they don't define, or dictate what we're capable of.

The human soul is too beautifully layered and complex to be able to pinpoint one exclusively defining characteristic, unless it is divinity. That is indeed the one characteristic we have in common: we are of divine origin. And with that comes divine, eternal, unlimited and varied potential. This can be said about every single person who ever was, and ever will be. Within the sphere of who and what we are, it is simply not possible for any one thing to stand in the way of our accomplishing whatever it is we were put here to do. And once we discover what that purpose is, and exercise the courage to boldly pursue and embrace it, we are unstoppable.

Humanity is potential. Humanity is beauty. Humanity is love.

The very idea of a disabled soul defies reason, and is laughably false! Therefore, there is most definitely no such thing as a disabled human being.