Overcoming Excuses for the Disabled and the Underdogs
One of the obstacles that I’ve always faced, but just recently became aware of, is that the majority of people in my life didn’t expect much from me. The fact that I have Muscular Dystrophy gave me a free pass. I’m an underdog and any achievement in my time here is going to be looked at as frosting. The truly sad phenomenon is that most people desire this status. There’s no denying the fact that the role of the underdog has much less pressure attached to it. If you provide somebody with an excuse to fail, nine times out of ten they’ll take it.
I always find it interesting that, in sports, a good coach always downplays injuries or other apparent weaknesses in his team. This isn’t just a ploy to keep his opponents from having an advantage, but it also reinforces to his own players that failure with an excuse is still only failure. History books write about accomplishments, they don’t document what could have been. Although, in today’s society, the ‘human interest story’ is so prevalent that writers of history now have special interest in manipulating reality as to make the disadvantaged advantaged.
It’s nice that people pull for the underdog – its human nature; on the other hand, if there is such a demand for a human interest story then the law of supply and demand comes into play. Our messengers get paid to deliver a message, whether there is one or not. In order to sell a newspaper, the agenda-driven storytellers modify the stories accordingly. The inevitable result is that people naturally become skeptical when they hear a success story involving an individual who had the odds stacked against them. People might not even feel comfortable expressing this skepticism, because if you deny this disadvantaged soul their time to shine, you might be labeled insensitive. Ultimately, this hurts the genuine article.
If Cinderella gets to go to The Ball every time, doesn’t The Ball lose its luster after awhile?
Lies and illusions are timeless adversaries; dragons that keep popping up in front of us. Be thankful for them. Yes, you heard me right. Love your enemy. In order to clearly define what you are, you must confront what you are not. A Dragonslayer requires a dragon.
If you grew up in a tough neighborhood, surrounded by drugs and violence, then your failure is completely understandable. Your consolation prize is being an understandable failure. Barbara Walters might drop by and do a story about you. You’ve reached “Them” status. You’ve become a Them and those that aren’t Them will gawk at you in their spare time, like they would a train wreck. You’ve become a human of interest story.
Imagine if they changed the rules and glorified failure. Is it suddenly more appealing to fail? We play the game because it’s difficult. Complexity is beautiful. The intricacies of a rose are essential to its lure. The hurdles that God provided you are there to enhance you and maximize what you can become. Be thankful for the dragon that’s there for you to slay, but slay them nonetheless.
