Food for Thought

I noticed that I haven't posted a thoughtful post in a little while now so when this topic came to me in the shower I knew I had to "discuss" it with you guys. I know you guys don't really "respond" to my posts but just the idea of putting them out there gives me the feeling of having a conversation of sorts with you guys. Like I said a loooong time ago, what I say here is only MY opinion. Take it to heart or take it with a grain of salt I couldn't care less I just want you to think about it, that's all. So now that everyone has been reminded of the "MARC in full effect" disclaimer lemme get onto the topic.

The topic really boils down to the simple question:

"Why do we pity certain people?" In other words why do we feel that certain people are lacking a "quality" life simply because, their's is different from ours?

Now that may be a little bit confusing like I said, I thought of this in the shower lol but, I'll give an example and hopefully this will all make a little more sense.

The following discussion has to do with the young lady pictured at the beginning of this post. As you may have noted she was born with Down Syndrome and for the purpose of this topic she will be the "face" so to speak, of Mental Retardation. Now Mentally Challenged people are nothing to laugh at and are in fact, a very sore subject to even speak upon when dealing with some people. In my post I will state an idea or opinion and in doing so I will "tip-toe around eggshells" to make sure not to offend anyone reading. Now back to the topic..

Why do people say that they pity or feel sorry for the mentally handicapped?

I can see the obvious reasons such as their lack of total self-sufficiency and limited grasp on various concepts including "normal" (note the quotation marks) public etiquette BUT, I am going to change this up a little bit and offer the idea that in fact the mentally challenged should pity US. If you look at things like I do personally, meaning with a somewhat Christian view on things you know that one thing that separates children from adults is innocence. By innocence I mean the lack of accountability for one's wrong-doings due to ignorance. Children aren't born with hate, infidelity, lust or malicious intent. All of those things are developed and learned through life experience.

I offer the idea that all of us, you, me, your parents are in some way corrupt. That's just a fact of life. Another fact of life is that we all have concerns and a "standard" of living that we wish to achieve. We have pity for the mentally challenged because, we feel as though they are being "cheated" of a "normal" life. This "normal" life however, is something that we deemed as normal ourselves thus, making it lose merit. Who are we to say what is "normal" or not? Who are we to determine what is "fortunate" or not? Us saying that other human beings have an inadequate means of living makes no sense.

I feel as though the mentally handicapped should pity ME. Being the "normal" person I am, I have experienced things that a mentally handicapped person will never have to deal with. Everyday I am met with choices, deception and temptation. Everyone is. I know the difference from right and wrong so to speak, and I have no "challenges" to keep me from making the correct choices. The only thing that makes me or anyone else give in to hate, deception or lust is poor character. I'm not saying that the mentally challenged live "care-free" lives BUT what I am saying is that they still obtain that fabric of our lives that we all deep down, wish we still possessed; A sense of innocence in a world of corruption.

Like I stated earlier that was an extremely confusing post and I wish I could relay my thoughts a little better to you guys but I tried. All in all I hope that you took something from that and I hope no one was offended. I may touch back on this subject at a later time when I'm able to better transfer my ideas to words.