By sharing this blogging journey with me...you, my dear readers hold in your very grasp an awareness many never will. For this, I am profoundly grateful to you.
There come these very brief moments at times when
I'm standing on one of my many step stools, where I will pause thinking how very different my life would have been if I had just those few additional inches. Indeed it would have been. Yet I don't have those inches so I embrace what I do have with my attitude of gratitude and innate sense of positivity.
Along the way on this amazing journey of mine I have been asked, "What do you hate most about being a Little Person?"
Obviously, the thing I/we Little People hate the most
is the worsening invasive ridicule while being followed, chanted "midget" to, and having our images rudely taken on cellphones and uploaded to disgusting websites.
To these non-humans we are an object. We have no humanity. THIS, is what I/we hate more than any inconvenience. THIS, is what we would change if we could change anything at all.
Sadly, there are some Little People who do the Jerry Springer type shows, demeaning not only themselves but us all. For you see the non-humans seeing this assume we ALL are like that. Well, we're not.
The ONLY thing we Little People ever have in common with each other is the fact we're short with a form of dwarfism. Period.
We are doctors, lawyers, accountants, marketing executives, teachers, architects, secretaries, social workers, actors, writers, musicians, artists, and even one theatre scene designer/artist/who galloped on her horses for decades.
Many of us have achieved a lot. Yet none of this matters when we contend with the non-humans. To them, we're "the scum of the earth, the slime of the sea, the lowest form of humanity." I cannot tell you how many times I have had those words chanted to me while surrounded by non-humans.
Trust me, we're not slime. We're not scum. And definitely not the lowest form of humanity. I know this because I walk TALL with my head held high. No one is taking that away from me.
Often people come up to me and preface what they are respectfully curious about asking by first saying, "I can't help but notice you are a Little Person."
Thankfully I have one hell of a sense of humor and usually respond with, "Oh crap! I didn't realize my dwarfism was showing today! Is it really THAT noticeable?!!"
It then takes a brief moment for them to realize what a sense of humor this Little Person has who is happy to answer their questions. I consider it as my Public Relations work on behalf of us all, because for every person I/we may patiently educate, they will share the positive encounter they had with others. It may be a drop in the bucket, but it is one where the door of our humanity gets opened wider.
Someday...maybe...just maybe that door will at last be thrown wide open forever.💫
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