WHAT I LEARNED AT THE CONFERENCE: part 7

Well, at least I think it's part 7; after a while it gets hard to remember!

Anyway, as I've already mentioned--another thing I learned about at the conference was:  Switchfoot.  They're a great musical group.  Their music is not overtly religious.  But it is spiritual.  And they try to say something in their songs.  One song of theirs I heard at the conference has lyrics that I think really speak to those of us with Moebius Syndrome; and really they speak to anyone who has physical differences.  It's from their song "Who We Are."  I'm just going to focus on a few lines.  Here we go:

"They said it's complicated"

And it is.  No doubt, having Moebius Syndrome complicates your life.  It can make some things harder and more difficult--in speaking, in swallowing, etc.

"They said we'd never make it this far
But we are"

But--exactly!  How often at the conferences have we heard that.  Parents of Moebius children come up to us.  And so many of them say--the doctors said we'd never meet anyone else with Moebius.  They said my child would never talk.  They said he or she wouldn't survive.  They said he or she wouldn't go to school.  But Moebius children do all of those things.

"They said the fight would break us
But the struggle helped to make
Who we are"

There are many who doubt us.  There are many who, upon first seeing us and meeting us, assume that we must have an intellectual disability.  Some look down upon us.  Some are prejudiced against us.

So sometimes we have to struggle.  But we overcome.  We achieve.  And maybe it's true--the struggle makes us better.  It makes us tougher.  No one is better at adapting to things than we are.

And now--now, our network has grown.  And we have each other too.  And so it's not just a situation where "I" have Moebius Syndrome.   Now there's a we.  There's an us.  And we all have things in common.  And that helps us too.

Thanks, Switchfoot, for putting these ideas into some simple, but powerful, words.