If you are regular readers of this blog, or our paths have crossed along the way, you have probably gathered that I am generally a happy/glass half full type of person. I don’t get angry and upset that often (apart from the rudeness of other drivers). So when I do, it is usually for a pretty good reason.
The occasion that is still causing my blood to boil, as well as a few tears, came about during the brilliant musical matinee session of Les Misérables that is currently playing in Melbourne. It was mum’s birthday and the family was treated to a theater session; nothing like a live musical production and highly recommend seeing if you have the opportunity. We were seated in the stalls relatively close the stage. In the row directly in front of us was a gentleman with his son. The gentleman was roughly in his 70’s and his son was roughly in his 50’s; his son had a severe intellectual disability. Throughout the show, the gentleman would sometimes need to explain to his son the story line. This was achieved through relatively quiet conversation, albeit if during a hushed scene, was reasonably audible.
Personally, I take my hat off to parents like this. It would definitely be an extremely tough gig, and not the path they were expecting when their baby was born. So when other people in the audience began to shout out “shut-up”, “shushhhh”, and “quiet down”, the embassment, rage, injustice, lack of respect and understanding produced more tears and emotions than Les Misérables. The gentleman and his son had just as much right to be watching the production as everyone else. I am not sure whether the other people have simply had a lack of interaction with people with various disabilities, have very different upbringings, or simply have not been taught common courtesy, or most importantly, that we are all human. We will all bleed if we cut ourselves; we all have emotions and needs. Sure these may vary from person to person but we are all united by our shared humanity. We are also beautifully different and diverse. Life would be bloody boring if we all shared the same personalities, preference for baked eggs, and love of the colour yellow. So we need to celebrate both our shared humanity and our diversity. This was clearly not the case during Les Misérables.
To be honest, I am not sure where to begin to start addressing all the social inequalities, in addition to the painfully obvious lack of respect and understanding. I suppose this blog post is one step. Education of kids is also another step; kids are remarkable in their ability to play with anyone – regardless of their ethnicity, ability, gender, or socio-economic status. Indeed, Mr Stumpy was so normal that when new kids arrived at my school and asked people,
“Oh, what is wrong with Han?”, my friends would be like, “huh? There is nothing wrong with Han”. “She has something wrong with her leg?”, “Oh, yeah, she is just missing a bit. No dramas” was typically how the conversation would play out.
As long as I could play cops and robbers, we were all happy. So maybe we need to take some lessons from children and embrace everyone – regardless if they are black or white.
Until next time,
Ride with a smile, ride with a purpose, ride in the moment,
Han
Beautifully put Hannah, unfortunately today people don’t have any respect or comprehension about how others need to deal with situations. I really hope that this man continued to explain things to his son, so that he took could experience the wonder that is Les Mis!
Agree CC – hopefully they both enjoyed the show!