Dear Citizen...please don’t thank me

We all have things we can do really well and some other things that may need more support, but at the end of the day we are all just people with our own unique gifts and talents. Some of us have cleaners, shoppers, mechanics, handy men and service providers to help us with the day to day. Even Executives and Managers have secretaries to help them. We are all worth looking at with the lens of seeing the gifts, talents and contributions a person gives and not what society may see as their defaults.

So. dear citizen. While you thought you were giving me a compliment, consider this. Consider that I don’t turn to your friend while you are out and say how much “I admire them for hanging out with someone who is bald.” That I don’t turn to them and tell them just “how brave they are” or that “I admire them for going out for a coffee with a friend.”

People are deserving of praise when they have done something great or remarkable by anyone’s standards, like getting employee of the month, winning a scholarship, or achieving a medal. Working with someone with a disability does not. Why? Because, dear sir, they are just simply people and some of them are a hella-of a lot better at things than me. 

Someone with a disability doesn’t look at the things they can’t do, but is always talking about the things they want to do, are dreaming of doing, enjoy doing and always getting out there being who they are.

Why do other people in society have such an issue doing the same?   

I mean, who knows dear sir, I may have judged too harshly. You may actually praise every single person you see doing their job in any of the community, retail, customer, or human services that requires person to person contact. You may have said to every single person you saw that day, that you admired each and every one of them for being themself. That, every person who crossed your path while you were reading your paper got the same level of admiration and respect.  Somehow though, I just don’t think this is the case.