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| Mayo Olugboji: Good Memories |
I would not call
South African runner Oscar Pistorius “the fastest man on no legs,” but rather “a
totally equipped and fully loaded person,” as Joel Osteen would say. The label
“the fastest man on no legs” seems to me an excessively mechanical and
oversimplified description of Pistorius, who possesses a well-developed sense
of self and a profound confidence in the abilities God has given him. As he
himself believes, “You are not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are
able by the abilities you have.” The phrase “the fastest man on no legs” draws
me to “the struggle for existence” and “survival of the fittest,” rivalry,
competition. And I
wonder… why do we have to compete with other people if no one but us in the
whole universe will ever be awarded the keys to finding that unique,
incomparable set of qualities that rightly shape us
into who we are? Is it because, as Einstein said, “great spirits have always
encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds”?
Society honors
Pistorius for fulfilling the role of “the fastest man on no legs,” that is, for
performing well as a disabled man. The expression “the fastest man on no legs” almost provides a “scientific” portrayal of what Pistorius can do, yet
it still lacks significance. “It would be possible,” Einstein said, “to
describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be
without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of
wave pressure.” I believe the label “the fastest man on no legs” reflects society’s
limited views on people more accurately than it does Pistorius’s handsome spirit.
What if the disability is not in Pistorius but in those who can’t see him as a
fully loaded man? As the famous proverb goes, “there’s none so blind as those
who will not see.” Maybe the real “disability” rests in the representation,
the linguistic symbol by means of which a person’s capabilities can only be approximately
translated. In any case, I don’t consider Pistorius to be an inspiration merely
because of his accomplishments as a disabled athlete but because of his achievement
in recognizing that each individual is able by the abilities she/he has. Many handsome spirits, like Pistorius, are yet
to be discovered by the public eye. And yes, they may be referred to as having
no arms, or no legs, or a learning disability, or an eating disorder, or ADHD, or as being too old, or too young, or whatever else, from a “scientific” point of view. But, handsome spirits were
never meant to fit into technical descriptions. Handsome spirits know far too
well that they are fully loaded and
fully equipped.
Amen, sista
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