Role Reversal: The Painter's and the Erasers
Location
We say it's sad,
the way they think
and act
and live
but it's the other way around.
We see them as simple,
as incapable
worthless
unable
wastes of space.
It's too bad that we don’t realize.
We are the simple ones,
always on the hunt for
more
and bigger
and better
and best.
While the ones with incapabilities
and disabilities
and disorders
have the right ideas.
we fail to realize that
they are actually
wide open
unconditionally loving
human beings
who see the world as
an opportunity
a playground
an empty canvas that needs color
and while they paint that canvas
with love
and affection
and simplicity
we go behind them
with the eraser
of cruelty
and judgment
and desire for our
skewed vision of "perfection"
We look for something to
make the world a better place.
I have found that "thing".
It's in the bear hugs
from a child born with
Downs' Syndrome
who has never met you
but wants to be your best friend.
It's in the smile on the face
of a student who lives with
Cerebral Palsy
who is receiving his
high school diploma.
It's in the fist pump of an adult who has gone
his whole life with
Autism
but now has just gone
the whole distance
to complete his first 5K.
The key to a better world is in
simplicity
faith
joy
and
pure love
that the
special people
in our world
are so quick to show.
If we could be more like them
instead of us wanting them
to be more like us
we would change the way we
think
and act
and live
and become the people that
we have always wanted to be.