People with somatic deformities

[Kyriakos]

Yesterday night i was at a bookstore (it works up to midnight). There i heard two people talking about a girl who is suffering from a very severe somatic deformity. I will not describe here what she looks like, suffice to say she is a very unlucky person.
I think that i have once seen her too. I felt horrible at the time, more so because i felt horrible, by which i mean that i would wish i could see such people without feeling sad. I am not one to judge others, but it stands to logic that her life is difficult.
Such a sight always makes me think if this life we have here is the sole one. If it is then surely such a deformity is really appalling. If it is not then i can only hope that in a next life the difficulty in this one will be accounted for, and allow for an easier existence.
Of course i do not project my own fears and sadness onto people with deformities. I know enough of life to be aware that i cannot feel how anyone else is feeling. Ideally they should be treated like everyone else, to make their passage from this earth as easy as possible.
I also think of other people, who have no deformity, and are sinister and petty. This makes me sad too.

Anyway, i am not sure if there is any interest in this topic. You can discuss your own views of this, or even if you deal with it by metaphysical aspirations (my own are agnostic, but existent).

[Alexander III]

When I first went to India, I was 8, and it broke my heart - because of the vast number of deformed children beggars who kept begging for money. I also saw plenty of this in Russia, but in Russia they are better at hiding them from the tourists. In fact I saw it in plenty of places around the world. Children, young men and girls, deformed and living on the street. I cried when I was 8, I remember that. But by now it doesn't affect me anymore. You just get used to it. Quisque suos patimur Manes.

[Kyriakos]

It is sad. Reminds me of the movie, the Elephant man, since he too was forced to be part of an act, in a way like those beggars.
Also, although it is not the same, i recall Akaky Akakyevic' words to a clerk in The Overcoat, the clerk who possibly stands for Gogol himself. The words which sounded like they meant "I am your brother!".

[Buh4Bee]

I guess the hard part for me is that fact that these children aren't being helped. If you can work with people from an early age, there is a lot that can be done to help them reach their full potential even with the deformity. I think the main thing is what do they think about themselves, as basic as it sounds. Who cares if you feel sorry for them. If someone who is deformed, feels good about him/herself and accepts the limitations, they could feel good about this life.

I work with a student who has several different medical conditions that affect her spine as well as her brain. Her hands are completely deformed, but she can still write. No one seems to notice, because she can do mainly do what the other kids can do. She is also held to the same standards and no one treats her any differently. She gets sent to the thinking spot just like everyone else. She also has a hell of a personality.

I just can't think on such a rudimentary level about people. Some many things define who we are. Yes, looks are important, but if it isn't working for you, well, you better find a different way to shine. I know one ugly guy in high school that dated more girls than many guys. It was because he had "game"- personality.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

As a culture, we are ingrained to automatically think of the deformed and disabled as weaker, or even as bad. Unfortunately, the antiquated notion that the deformed and disabled are the waynp they are it is some sort of punishment from God still exists, though maybe not as much as it once did. Just look at the history of villains ans weak characters in literature, and look at how many are diisabled or deformed.

[Kyriakos]

I used to be in a uni class with a fellow student who had various medical conditions, and a slight deformity (mostly her problem was being paralytic, she used an automatic chair with functions that allowed her to print the lesson on a screen attached to it.
I feel bad for failing to utterly get rid of any sadness when i see such people. True, they may still reach their full potential, and we all know that most people never reach anything near their full potential, but it is logical to claim that those with such problems are still limited in many ways.
I guess this topic was at least partly influenced by a second short story of mine being published in a few days, a story which is about such a disabled student, who meets her doom from a very unlikely source...