Be Thankful

This past Sunday mass at my parish I witnessed something that caught me by surprise. The priest needed help walking up the stairs to reach the altar. One of the altar servers had to literally lend him a hand in walking up each and every step. When Fr. Gregory, the handicapped priest, walked you could tell instantly he that he was different since he limped every other step. Later on throughout the mass I realized that in order for him to give out the Eucharist, he had one of the altar servers hold the Eucharist so he could use his one viable hand. Watching this made me think how difficult it must be for a handicapped person. It must be inextricable just dealing with it let alone others looking at you as if you much differently. I give credit to those who are handicapped because our society seems to just overlook and push aside the handicapped. This is not just inconsiderate, but ignorant. These people are fighting and suffering from diseases, ignoring them is just unfair. They have emotions and feelings as well and deserve an equal amount of respect despite their irregularities.

A good paradigm for the handicapped is Helen Keller. She was the first deaf blind person to overcome society's wide gap by earning a Bachelor of Arts degree. That is amazing! She understood that someone was talking by placing her hand on the lips, nose, and throat of the speaker. The letters "n" and "m" she knew by the vibrations of the speakers nose. Each letter has a specific vibration throughout our lips, nose, and throat. Its extraordinary how she was able to understand a speaker with the help of Anne Sullivan, her educator. Anne Sullivan also taught Helen how to speak. Helen Keller went against the odds and proved to the whole world you can accomplish anything if you put your heart and mind to it!