Misblog

Stories like Kellie Lim's, a triple amputee graduating from America's UCLA medical school and Zhao Li's, an artist at China's Anshan University, who paints with her feet, are simultaneously "inspiring' and 'irritating'.

These stories inspire because they stretch our current perceptions of human potential and possibilities. These stories irritate because our perception of the vast vista of human potential and possibilities is so small, distorted, and cropped that these stories inspire!

Of course women without legs and one arm can be doctors! It's their brain, creativity, memory, and analytical ability that will propel them to develop innovative procedures in pediatric care, not legs!

Of course women can paint with their feet! It's their imaginations connected to their feet that will create inspirational and visionary art, not arms!

Have we allowed our vistas to become so shrunken, distorted and cropped that Kellie Lim and Zhao Li "inspire" us? Why aren't we "irritated" that UCLA and Anshan Universities aren't graduating more like Kellie and Zhao?

And of course let’s mention the men, like Steven Hawkings?

Are we really going to limit our vistas to “pretty” and “like me”. Or as scary as it might be, push them into outer space and see where it leads?

I promise it’s light years beyond graduating from medical school on prosthetics, painting with your feet, or redefining our universe through a speech synthesizer!

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