Difference doesn’t mean Deficiency.
Back in 1970, people treated a baby born with Mongoliaism as a death sentence both for the child and the parents.
The doctors would recommend the parents send their babies directly to an institution to avoid the tremendous burdens of taking care of a ‘non-human’ creature.
The term Mongoliaism was coined by the owner of the institution. He observed the common features of the children with Asian eyes, short necks, and figures which were similar to the Mongolian race in the 19th century.
Even when people started calling it Down syndrome and stopped the segregation of race; even though the Internet was at everyone’s fingertip, Neil still felt hopeless and devastated when he knew his newborn daughter having it.
However, when other people offered their condolences, he didn’t feel right because the child was alive and healthy.
Neil initially distanced himself from this kid, grieving for the bleak future of his daughter. However, he started doing more research on this syndrome.
Most importantly, instead of observing his daughter’s development, he started observing himself from a psychological view.
He realized he was mourning for his expectation of having an ideal child and was influenced by society’s standards of normalcy.
Diversity seems to be more like an advertising slogan than a basic human right.
Neil recalled a scene that taught him a significant lesson to respect difference instead of keeping a prejudice of stigmatizing deficiency.
While his three children played with other kids in the playground, his oldest son, for no reason, started introducing himself and the other two siblings.
He said, “My talent is jumping and running.” Then he pointed to one of his sisters and said, “Her talent is fighting.”
As he pointed to his last sister who runs a bit slower, cannot climb too high, and cannot ride a bicycle too fast, he said, “We haven’t figured out her talent.”
From the children’s views, everyone is special and has their powers, so they WILL find out what their sister’s talent is.
We should be proud of our differences without feeling self-abashed.
We are not superior or inferior to others; we are just different and true to ourselves.
