The Real Fearless Girl

I watched a young girl on a playground climbing wall attached to the side of a slide.  Cute child, but what made me watch was that she had one natural leg and one artificial leg.  I noticed this, but I don’t really think she did.  She struggled with determination to the top, believing that she could and would make it.  Her mother waited at the top with encouragement.   When she slipped once (her real leg/foot, not the artificial one) her father was there to catch her and help her back into position, not any different than any parent would do for their child (even a child with 2 healthy legs) in this situation.  This young girl’s focus and determination were apparent and when she made it to the top her mother was there with a hug – the same sort of hug that any young child gets from loving parents when they have succeeded with one of their many simple yet profound firsts (walking, talking, etc.).

This young girl did not know she was any different than the other children at the playground; her parents treated her as any loving parent does any child.  She believed in herself and with persistence she worked toward her goal, and with hard work she succeeded.

I don’t know why this young girl had the artificial leg; perhaps she was born with one leg, perhaps it was due to accident or illness, perhaps some other reason.  But why should that matter.  It certainly did not matter to this child or her parents.  Yet, I wondered when things will change and when exactly it is that today’s society will want to teach her that she is a victim, when they will teach her that she should be angry about the fact that she has an artificial limb.  When will they teach her that she should blame someone for her condition and that she should expect special favors because of it, hence sending the message that she is somehow less than the rest of the world.  And how long will this take her to begin thinking that she cannot rather than that she can – that without those sending her these messages she could not survive?

I hope that she does not get these messages, that she is able to somehow shut out this sort of propaganda.  But truly, this is the message of the Left:  that those of you who are not like us due to some identifiable characteristic need us to take care of you because you are somehow less than us, could not survive without us, and therefore must cede to us all power over your life.  Extreme as this may sound, this is the message that underlies the identity politics of the left.  It is the underlying argument for their demand for big government, for the big government that in the end is simply a structure for their own power.

This young girl on the playground was the real fearless girl – the persistent child who believed in herself, who saw herself as whole and capable and who blamed no one for her struggle.  She did not cry, she was not angry that her condition made her climb difficult, perhaps more difficult than some other children.  She did not need or expect people to feel sorry for her (and, indeed, no one did).  She did not expect someone else to lift her to the top.  She accepted herself for who she was, not wishing to be someone else.  She relied upon herself, believed in herself, persisted, and succeeded – without blame, without anger, without expectation of special entitlement.  And her parents, there to support her, did not tell her that she couldn’t, that the only way she would get there is with their or someone else’s help – they did not send that demeaning message that she could not do it on her own, that she could not, but rather they believed and conveyed the message that she could.

Now, if only we could all learn from this simple episode in the park.