I was replying someones’ e-mail and committing to help ‘be his eyes’ in the library as he does some research for his Paper. He wrote in his e-mail, that”I am blind as a bat and I basically need a pair of eyes, do you wanna help out?” and I giggled to myself….. thinking about How blind is a Bat….
But then I was surrounded by a question, “Why would God Shower me with so many blessings, when I least deserve them, especially at a time when I am not even performing my Spiritual duties well, not even staying with Guru jee’s feet, not even doing my Nitnem (daily prayers) the way I should be…….
“Simran, Why do you wanna help?”, I said that to myself a few times….
And then My inner voice said, “………. mmmm… because I have so many disabilities…., so many, the only thing is, people don’t ever notice them….”
Isn’t that true, I really believe that we all suffer from something or the other, we all have noticeable or non-noticeable disabilities, or sufferings, if I don’t have a fever, I have the biggest disease in the world, the “Haumey da rog” meaning Ego disease; if I don’t have physical leprosy, I have mental leprosy- which makes me unavailable for seva (Selfless Service of Humanity) ; If my legs work perfectly fine, I have the moral disability, when I refuse to stand up for the rights of others.
If I can see perfectly, I have my minds eyes completely blind- blind to the sorrow of the others, blind to faith, blind to see poverty, blind - completely blind, maybe even blind as a bat- that I just can’t see how much I hurt others, when I am mad at them, or how irresponsible I can be, when I let the people I see at the Sky-train Station every day, inject themselves with crap and not do anything about it…
We have so many disabilities, and yet we can not see them, because we choose to keep our ‘perfectly working eyes’ closed
I wrote this on my Blog a long while ago… Basically, my client (/ the person I assist) from the Centre for Students with Disabilities, is now very good friend. I am his admirer- big time, He inspires me so much~ [I shall call him ‘A’ for the purpose of this blog post]
Today We were hanging out and working on something together. And after, I found myself smiling to myself while returning home…
Well, I was thinking of something we talked about today while we were hanging out. ‘A’ was basically out on campus, a few hours earlier, Smoking in a random outdoor space of the campus. A random girl walked by, while chatting with her friend. She said to her friend, while ‘A’ was in an audible distance; “OMG, I feel so bad about being Handicapped, I’d probably die if I were blind or something, It’s so hard…”. ‘A’ is wonderful, He went upto the girls, and the girl that was talking, got so embarrassed and scared (A is a strong dude, with a super cool personality!) that she almost fell…
A held his hand up to help save the girl from falling over, and said “Are you falling for me already?”
It brought a smile on my face, this was such a cool (& cute) way of reacting to it & hopefully opening her eyes . ‘A’ never denies the truth, and how I perceive it- He faces and fights the world, Courageously looking the world Straight in the eye!
Hello there!
ReplyDeleteVJKK VJKF. Great post bhainji.
I was wondering if you could explain what the title of this post is supposed to mean- I know that you are playing with words or something, but what is the implied meaning?
VJKK VJKF!
ReplyDeleteThank You for stopping by and giving it a read. I am glad you liked the post.This post is very dear to my heart. Thank you for your question. In fact, I love having connotative value to most of my photography, paintings and writings.
(dis)abled by default- as a whole implies that we are all disabled by default- we are born with endless potential but it is locked up somewhere within us, until we actually, consciously find courage to actively become 'abled'. Even able bodied people are disabled, we really only show ability if we try to outdo ourselves...
It is a pun on words because those who are disabled (the category bracketed by society as disabled) are technically fighting the world courageously, which able-bodied people don't, for the most part. For most of us who get caught up in the norms of the society and compromise our own individuality, we are far more disabled than people with disabled bodies.This post is written in a way that this is clearly portrayed. Through this post, I hope to oppose those who bracket such courageous individuals into stereotypical categories, or think that they are less- abled than others.
Thank you so much for the question!
VJKK VJKF