Invalid...Birth Defect...

     For a lifetime, words have fascinated me. Specifically, words used to describe individuals with disabilities, in common parlance.
     I was handicapped as a child.  Today, I am disabled.  Both are loving names.
     Cruel kids crippled me.  Punks proclaimed, "Palsy Patty."
     I was stunned by an adult appellation of Gimp.  I am Patty, I am not a Gimp.
     Yet, I am having the last laugh.  I was blessed with a lifelong sensitivity, and passion for words of all forms.  The sting of those words is replaced by dedication.  Words used to describe individuals, be the words adjectives, or nicknames, may in no way dictate derogation.
     Two words akin to handicapped, and crippled, were not spoken in reference to me.  Yet, they still sting.
     Invalid.  In-val-id.  In-va-lid.
     These two words speak volumes.  Do we hear the emphatic value judgment that we make?  Do we care?
     I don't believe these words are used as frequently as they were at one time.  Yet, they are worthy of our notice.
     Birth defect.
     Manufactured goods have defects.  Children are not manufactured.  They are not mistakes on an assembly line.  They are children of God.
     I may be said to have two birth defects.  But, they have names.  Call them by name.  Let them be known.  Let them be understood.  My birth defects are cerebral palsy and epilepsy.  The next time you meet them, in me, or in someone else, address them by name.