There was a moment that happened in this year’s Olympics
where I discovered my own prejudice and was floored. I’d thought of myself as a fair sort of
person. Believing in free speech, anti
racist, pro humanity generally a sort of “one people, one planet
philosophy. Then, this year while
watching the Para Olympics there were endless close ups of disabled athletics
competing and I found myself admiring the perfect physic of these highly
trained Olympians. Perhaps it was
seeing for the first time a disabled athlete also in the main Olympics that
reinforced the thought.
I was aware that
all too often my mind would be uplifted by their talent and strength and then
register that missing limb and think, what a pity. Perfection spoiled, as
if a work of art had been damaged by a vicious assailant
and lost the beauty that it possessed by right. But this year their
enthusiasm and talent suddenly blew that out of the water. I don’t even
know exactly when it happened but I remember the realization that this human is
in better shape than you, faster, stronger, more talented and has made more
effort in their short lives than you will in your entire life span. I
found myself seeing them as incredibly, beautiful, inspirational human beings,
full of life and laughter and unusually perfect.
