I have personally only met and spoken with Buddy a few times in my life. Yet, it was enough to know he truly loved life. He loved people.
Disability often has a two-fold connotation in our society. On the one hand, we are learning that people living with disabilities are not really that much different from the rest of us. On the other hand, most do not even have any idea what goes on in a life learning to live with disability.
We tend to see limitations as what it stands for, a limit. It means we see limitations as negatives in our world. But, are they really limiting?
Typically developing individuals see the world through the eyes of judgement. We see clouds and assume it might rain, we see smoke and assume there is a fire, we see people dressed a certain way and make assumptions about their background, we see people’s skin color and assume they belong to this or that background or culture.
People with mental “dis” abilities do not see the world this way. Not by a long shot.
They just see people.
You see the prefix “dis” literally means apart, asunder, away, utterly or having a privative, negative, or reversing force; privative means marked by the absence, removal, or loss of some quality or attribute that is normally present.
I realize this word, disability, is not the most appropriate choice to be politically correct, but it remains in our vocabulary.
I’m actually honored and privileged to have known someone who has the “a-bility” to move away from what is normally present, that is an automatic judgement of others.
Think about this and let it sink in. People who are mentally “dis” abled see others quite differently than the rest of us.
They don’t for the most part see color, recognize status, understand hierarchical connotations, get economic standing, or even comprehend someone’s intellectual ability.
How cool would it be to walk into a room full of people and just see, people! To think of each one as someone to hug or get a hug from.
How many of us would love to be loved just for the mere fact we are breathing.
People like Buddy and my daughter Camille have Down syndrome. They are “dis” abled. Their experiences in this life have allowed them to see people like Jesus saw them.
Jesus was always for the underdog, always. He taught people, he touched people, he hugged people, he spent time with people. He was the only one who truly knew what someone’s background was really like, yet he taught us to love unconditionally, anyway. He taught us to love our enemies, to pray for them, to forgive them, and to bless them, anyway.
Jesus taught us to take care of each other, anyway.
Oh, to be able to see others the way Jesus sees them. Oh, to love others unconditionally, anyway.
Thank you, Buddy, for blessing us with your presence. Thank you, God for allowing us to have Buddy for 65 years. Thank you for Buddy’s eyes that saw what you saw in others.
My prayers is that we could just embrace each other the way Buddy embraced each of us.
Buddy and Camille are what I call “noticers.” They notice other people and see their need to be loved. They notice that someone needs a hug. They notice that someone loves them and cares for them.
May we all be like Buddy. May we notice that all everyone really wants is to be loved.
Jesus said it quite simply, for anyone to understand,
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?
Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all y“our mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40 NIV
Love God, love others. Anyway!
