THE PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED.

A few days ago, in the papers, I read a certain loud mouthed MP dressed down the Opposition MP just because he was invalid. He claimed that the Opposition's state of health today is a direct result of God's wrath on him because he was arrogant.



I read that report with mixed feeling as I feel that our MP's are really not fit to be respected members of Parliament and the very fact that such a thing was uttered, showed how much of a person he is...which is NONE! I just feel that by calling an invalid and also blaming a physically challenged person on God is out of call. No one can take the name of God in vain and by justifying such acts, one is directly blaming God for all the mishaps in this world which is grossly inaccurate!



So, as I was reading this, I too reflected upon my primary school days of a certain student who was physically challenged. I remember seeing him in another class when I was in primary one. We were in the same school, same age and same school. I vividly remembered him as being paralysed from the waist down and as a result of that, he was confined to a wheel chair.



I used to notice that he had a caring mom who would wait for him each day after school just to wheel him out of the class and then back to the car to go home. But, most of the time, I will notice that he would be alone. I'm very sure due to this inability to move around, he was always confined to his wheel chair and the class. Never really noticed if he had someone buy him food during recess or did he bring his own food. Not really sure if he had friends too, but I remember seeing one or two boys who would talk to him but all in all, I noticed that he was always alone.



Now, as this thought came into my mind, I really wonder after all these years, what has happened to him? Did he get married? Did he do well? What's his life now? All this while, I was busy with my friends, did I get to get in touch with a physically challenged person? Did I bother to chat with him, get to know him or maybe just understand the kind of life he was leading? I guess I never and will never know because like the majority of the people out there, we seldom take time to really understand them.

did we take time to get to know them...?

So, are we too guilty like that MP who will just put the blame on these physically challenged persons, on God? Or do we take time to understand their real struggles in life? I wonder...