TODAY:  MOEBIUS SYNDROME AWARENESS DAY!
Well, so, today is the day:  January 24th is Moebius Syndrome Awareness Day, so chosen because it is the birthday of Paul Julius Moebius, the doctor who helped pin down and put a name to the condition that I and a number of others have.  To read more about MSAD and what it means, go here.   And to read more about Moebius Syndrome in general (if you somehow read this blog but haven't read about Moebius before!) then go here.

It's a special day.  And it's a special day for many reasons.  First, because Moebius is unusual.  We really don't know how many people in the world have it.  It may be 10,000 or less.  It may be 5000 or less.  But it's rare.  Whenever I talk about on the first day of class, or it comes up in other ways with those to whom I've never mentioned it before, most have never, ever heard of it.  But it exists.  It's a physical difference which affects thousands of people and their families.  We need to raise awareness of it.

Secondly, we need to raise this kind of awareness because there is still a lot of prejudice out there.  Many people see someone with a physical difference, and immediately assume that he or she must have an intellectual disability (the old word was "retarded").  But it's not true.  I have Moebiuis, and I have a Ph.D. in history.  Many others with it have great educations, good jobs, and brilliant accomplishments.  Physical differences don't mean what some people think they mean.

And thirdly, MSAD allows ordinary people with Moebius, and families affected by it, to act on their own to raise awareness.  To have fund-raisers, to go to news organizations and urge them to do a story on Moebius, to simply wear purple, emphasize that we with Moebius are here, are loud, are proud! :+)...and thus are empowered, and are able to educate people who might otherwise be in the dark.

So yes, Moebius Syndrome Awareness Day is here.  I have Moebius.  Many others do too.  And who knows--despite the obstacles it presents us, which we've talked about many times on this blog, maybe we're better people because of it.

"Our smiles are in our hearts."---Moebius Syndrome Foundation