It’s amazing, isn’t it? You’d think great musicians grew up all normal but with exceptional musical abilities. But in actuality, a lot of them have impairments that could have stopped them from becoming great. Beethoven was deaf and is an excellent example of how anyone can overcome such a grave challenge and, in fact, use it for the better. Boy, did he use it! Eric Clapton, Sting and Bono? Also hearing-impaired. Andreas Bocelli, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles? All blind.
It’s like wonderful armless painters who have found a way to use their mouths and feet, painting their obra maestras. It’s like Stephen Hawking using his genius mind over his physical matters. Or how about Nick Vujicic? No arms, no legs, no problem. He’s become one of the most influential life speakers of today…
Oh, but here, we go back to music. I thought I’d share this TED Talks session to you (I told you I like TED Talks).
In this soaring demonstration, deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie illustrates how listening to music involves much more than simply letting sound waves hit your eardrums.
It’s a very enlightening and entertaining talk. I’m pretty sure you’ll like it and her, too. I wish I could actually see this wonderful artist perform!
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Hope you guys enjoyed that and learned a thing or two. If you have similar talks to share, please share. I love listening to stories of triumph like this 🙂
While I am working on various stuff, I’ve decided to share this for now. I am very much in awe of the man and his excellent talent. I can’t even imagine how his brain works! But what’s really inspiring is his disposition despite his condition. He reminds us that no matter how difficult things may seem, there is always something to be joyful and thankful for. (And I will never look at typewriters the same way again!)
Please click on the image to get to the Urban Times page where the video is. I can’t post the video here because I am not sure about the copyright. It was posted by John Stofflet and I’m not sure if it’s his voice doing the narrating, but he seems to be the guy talking to the artist. Seems like the video was first shown on King-TV back in 2004 (says there in the YouTube page).
We like to think that we’re all good people, right? Until we are faced with those who are different. How do we react? Do we think they can’t do stuff at all? Do we discriminate?…We do this because we like to think we are better. Not so good of us, is it?
We often call them disabled. The right, more politically correct term nowadays would be DIFFERENTLY ABLED. Or the more accepted term Persons with Disability (PWDs). I personally don’t think the word “disabled” is derogatory or discriminatory, but because a lot of people have made it seem so, I believe that “Differently Abled” and “PWD” are, really, more correct.
They only have abilities different from ours, the supposedly “abled” people, but it doesn’t mean they cannot do anything. In fact, there are lots of them who proved themselves to be quite able in things that we aren’t or can’t do ourselves physically or mentally.
Nick Vujicic doing what he does best, motivational speaking
Like Australian Christian Evangelist Nick Vujicic who was born without all the four limbs we all too often take for granted (he is the founder of the non-profit organization Life without Limbs, by the way). You don’t need to be a Christian to be able to understand him, even relate to him one way or another. He is a motivational speaker and when he speaks, you can’t help but think, oh yeah, he’s so right-on. He’s very funny and entertaining, too. And he can swim.
Now here I am. I am not sure if I have ever positively motivated anyone, I have stage fright that I can’t even be funny onstage, and I can’t swim to save my life! It’s not to downplay my own abilities. I’m just saying he’s just differently abled from myself. Given my own lack of talent in certain things, I guess I — all of us — can be considered differently abled as well, depending on what aspects.
It just makes me think that if we were all able to do the same things, life would either be too boring or we’d all be chaotically (is there such a word?) scrambling to try to be the best when no one can really be the best. And it makes me think that if Nick was born quite normal by our standards, I wonder how many people he could’ve inspired. Chances are, not as many as he has actually inspired today, with no limbs and all. He’s got many vids in the YouTube-sphere, so if you want to understand what I mean and see him in action, try to check them out.
We can really cite various other inspirational people who have proved that disability is not a factor in failure or success. One just has to find the right thing for himself/herself.
In fact here’s another wonderfully different person whose TEDx talk inspired me recently and who actually inspired this topic. She is Maysoon Zayid, an Arab-American born with cerebral palsy and, thankfully, a very good sense of humor. I just found out about her and reading about her credentials, especially her advocacy work, I am already impressed. I like her already!
To Nick, Maysoon and those others fighting the good fight, I salute you! Long live!
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The End Justifies the Journey 