If I Could Change One Thing...

     "Why didn't you tell me that Rosa has cerebral palsy?"
I sat down beside her and take a deep breath. "I was going to."
     "But why didn't you?"
      I don't really know where to begin on this.  It's been a feeling more than a rational thing, but it's true.  I haven't wanted to mention it.
      I shake my head.  "Rosa and I write notes in class."
     "So?"
     "So...I didn't talk to her at all before I lost my leg.  I ignored her.  But now..."  I lift my backpack and zip open the smallest pouch.  "Sometimes she writes things."  I pull out my growing collection of her notes.  They're little scraps, half sheets, strips.  It's a mess, really. It looks like a small pile of garbage.
     "You keep them?" she asks.
     "I don't really know how to explain it."  I sift through the notes.  "She has a way of..."  
     I look up at Mom.  "It's like she opens my eyes."
     Mom considers this a moment.  "Can you give me an example?"
     I'm sifting through the notes again.  "Here," I say, pulling one out.  "She asked me, if you could change one thing, what would it be?"  I look up from the note.  "Not a wish; it had to be something real."
     "And what did you say?"
     "That I could run again.  But, when I asked her the same thing, she said"--I turn to the note--"That people would see me, not my condition."
                             The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

    No.  Jessica and Rosa have are missing the point.  Rosa gives the easy answer--the answer you would expect.
      If asked, "Patty, if you could change one thing what would it be?"  I would offer a slightly different answer.  For a lifetime, I have tried to offer my answer, yet, my words have not conveyed my convictions.
     If I could change one thing, it would be that people would see themselves in me, and not my condition as an entity separate from them.  I give a form to facing human vulnerabilities.  I mean no threat.  My vulnerabilities are visible.  Others may not be visible.  Yet, they are equally worthy of being surmounted.
     If I could change one thing, it would be that each of us would see ourselves in one another, and seek for ourselves, and others the best that we may be.  May we be courageous enough to face our vulnerabilities--our shared humanity.