Diference = Uniqueness
Society emphasizes the disability of each person instead of emphasizing the multiple capabilities of each one. Is this what we want?
A blind person understands spoken language faster than a person that can see.
Persons with limited mobility have enhanced innovation and creativity because they are used to having to adapt themselves to challenging situations.
Those who carry “diferences” (usually called disabilities) are more persistent and are better at solving problems because they just cannot surrender at the first try.
It seems everyone is participating in a race to be “as normal as possible”. But, would you feel proud of winning the Nobel Prize for the “Most Normal Person in the World”?
I celebrate diference!
I am so lucky I was priviledged to have diference inside my own home: When I met Caui, she was 8 years old, she had autism.
She didn’t look in the eyes, she spoke only with herself, she would constantly spin things around. She would drop plates, spill glasses of water… she would eat her soup with her hair inside. I found this challenging but extremely interesting.
We worked with her for years, and she overcame almost all her challenges! Helping Caui to reduce her autistic condition was and is very gratifying… however, there is an even bigger prize for me:
Loving Caui’s diference with curiosity (instead of seeing it with a negative heavy connotation) allowed me to learn, allowed me to grow, like I never dreamt I would.
Loving diference with curiosity allowed me to learn & grow, like I never dreamt I would.
[… continues in Chapter 9 “Love Era”]
“Diference=Uniqueness” is an extract (Chapter 8) of Joe Santos’ speech “Deficiência — Diferença”, spoken on 10 May 2016 at Futuridade II, Centro Comunitário Gafanha do Carmo at Centro Cultural de Ílhavo.
Joe Santos is a Co-Founder of Vencer Autismo and dedicates his life to the cause of Autism and supporting Social projects for the love of seeing positive change in the world.
Thank you so much for reading. If you don’t mind, could you click the heart button below? It’ll increase the chance that more people will see it and hopefully likewise find this post useful. Thank you again.
