Sunday, September 18, 2016

Is intellect a barrier to relationships?

To a lot of people and maybe to me in some degree me before John came into our lives, John and people like him were viewed as a burden, someone who could not contribute to society. John will probably never be known for his intellect or will probably never be a profound speaker. 

But when I observe John and how he interacts with people and them with him, I am humbled at his gift of relationship. A few things I observe with John is that he doesn't compete with his words or experiences when talking with people, because there is nothing he is trying to prove to people except maybe the fact that he loves to play cars and that he wants to be friends. It really doesn't concern him that the person is smarter than he is or that your vocabulary is larger than his. The color of a person’s skin, length of hair, whether or not they have tattoos or piercing or the clothes they wear does not change how he interacts with people. He sees everyone through the same lens and everyone as having the same potential for friendship and a playmate.

So it saddens me when I see people brush him aside when he attempts to make someone his friend. It makes me sad for John, but even sadder for the other person. For getting to know John comes with more blessings than anticipated. And it is this unconditional love for people that John and others like him have that can teach all of us "normal people" who have the ability to think deeply about things a thing or two about relating to others. I often think that one of the reasons for John being a part of our family is to show us what LOVE and ACCEPTANCE look like.







No comments: