A No-Labels Society. Not a Dream, a Reality.
Living in a body without arms as an Inspirational Speaker, I get to look at the world from a different perspective. I often tell my audiences that society is a poor judge of my inner personality because I am often written off because of the way my body looks.
Recently, during a trip to Baltimore, my 18 month old daughter learned to hold my foot with her hand while we are walking in a crowded area. You see, I drive a powered wheelchair with my right foot, and with my left, I am able to hold her hand to make sure she stays safe. It's what any parent would do for their child.
What is so inspiring and amazing to me is Hannah's acceptance of what is "normal" in our family. She doesn't know any differently, so she treats me with full acceptance and love unlike the world around me that often treats me as handicapped before they get to know me. Hannah's attitude shows what we all could be like if we simply treated others with respect and love without judging others based on looks.
In my presentations, I love to talk about seeing people instead of labels. Society as a whole is a great giver of labels. We have so many labels that we have decided to make up new labels because the old ones seem crass or hurtful. The word "handicapped" has become "person with special needs.While I agree that the new label is better than the old, I fear it is just a band-aid on a bigger problem.
How about this...no labels. What if we viewed people as people instead of what they looked like, smelled like, acted like, etc? Get the idea? Then,political correctness could die away because we wouldn't need to classify. Instead of categorizing people, and thus limiting their potential, we could see the deep potential inside of them. Everyone could be equals.
Want a world with no war? See the "enemy" as a human being. Want to abolish poverty? See the "homeless" as people. We CAN change the world simply by how we view it. The task is yours, and it begins with changing the way you see the people around you. You can change the world one person at a time.
I do. I believe that an awesome change can take place in our world and in our society if we simply change how we look at people. If we can see people as humans before labels, our world would make a change for the better.
Living in a body without arms as an Inspirational Speaker, I get to look at the world from a different perspective. I often tell my audiences that society is a poor judge of my inner personality because I am often written off because of the way my body looks.
Recently, during a trip to Baltimore, my 18 month old daughter learned to hold my foot with her hand while we are walking in a crowded area. You see, I drive a powered wheelchair with my right foot, and with my left, I am able to hold her hand to make sure she stays safe. It's what any parent would do for their child.
What is so inspiring and amazing to me is Hannah's acceptance of what is "normal" in our family. She doesn't know any differently, so she treats me with full acceptance and love unlike the world around me that often treats me as handicapped before they get to know me. Hannah's attitude shows what we all could be like if we simply treated others with respect and love without judging others based on looks.
In my presentations, I love to talk about seeing people instead of labels. Society as a whole is a great giver of labels. We have so many labels that we have decided to make up new labels because the old ones seem crass or hurtful. The word "handicapped" has become "person with special needs.While I agree that the new label is better than the old, I fear it is just a band-aid on a bigger problem.
How about this...no labels. What if we viewed people as people instead of what they looked like, smelled like, acted like, etc? Get the idea? Then,political correctness could die away because we wouldn't need to classify. Instead of categorizing people, and thus limiting their potential, we could see the deep potential inside of them. Everyone could be equals.
Want a world with no war? See the "enemy" as a human being. Want to abolish poverty? See the "homeless" as people. We CAN change the world simply by how we view it. The task is yours, and it begins with changing the way you see the people around you. You can change the world one person at a time.