EACH PERSON IS UNIQUE
1874 - 1931
Thomas, an eight year-old boy, rather sickly and partially deaf, lagged far behind his peers in academics. Teachers tended to be easily angry with him because he was slow to pick up. His class-mates were quick to make fun of him. Thomas lived in an unkind world. But he had a mother who was happy to have him. A mother who would sit with him each evening, at the kitchen counter and listen to how bad his day had been.
One day, Thomas came home with a letter from the headmaster of his school. Thomas was being expelled because his brain was slow. His mother did not fuss much about the letter. She hugged Thomas saying everything would be okay. She knew he was slower than most others, but she believed Thomas could learn if lessons were taught to him with love. She worked on teaching him herself at home. It began to work. Pretty soon Thomas started to devise new things, inventing this and that – a lot of them silly in the beginning.
When Thomas finally died, a whole nation – the people of the United States of America – honored him by switching off the lights throughout the entire U.S.A. for one minute. This was the Thomas expelled from school by his headmaster because his brain worked slower; the one whom classmates laughed at. This Thomas was Thomas Alva Edison, inventor of the light bulb and phonograph. And that head-master and the jeering classmates, where were they when America turned its lights off to honor Thomas Alva Edison at his death? Doesn’t Thomas deserve, from all of us, a round of applause – and also his Mom?
There is something beautiful about every creature of God, and particularly so about every human person. Who are we to denigrate a person created in the image and likeness of God? Let us learn to ‘discover beauty’ (quite often hidden) in every person we meet!
Adapted By Designed by
Shalini Samuel Sonali Roy
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