Not all fish can climb

As you look around you'll find

not all fish can learn to climb.

It's not part of their design.

So could you tell me why,

when it comes to you and I,

we are told we are confined

in what success looks like?

The methods that we use,

at times become abuse,

that in time will reduce

those deemed anomalous

to a place of irrelevance.

But just because someone is different,

it does not make them insignificant.

Anxiety, depression, dyslexia, schizophrenic

these are all labels my friends have been given.

But if you would get to know them, you would find,

these labels don't define their lives .

Instead what you find is often times,

unbridled creativity,

because their non-conformity,

has given them a chance to be free.

So I ask you pause and think,

before you call it disability.

I really enjoyed this piece, at first I thought it sounded Dr.Seuss-esque. It started from reflection on a conversation I had about not being able to paint ( as I am a word person, my mind doesn't really use pictures, save for utilitarian purposes.) and the counter point to it being that everybody has some ability  in painting, even if you aren't good.  As I thought about it, Einstein's quote of "Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by how it climbs a tree, it will spend it's life thinking its a failure." seemed fitting. As I continued it morphed into something more akin to my stance of not discounting anybody. I find issue with a system that will disregard someone due to their inability to learn in a specific manner. I realized that most of my friends have been labeled with either a mental disorder, or a learning disability, but have moved past it, or learned how to handle it and succeed. Often times though there is a social stigma attached to being different, and in not understanding it we label it as "wrong" and effectively ostracize these people. But from what I have seen is that due to being different, they make natural leaders (as you can't be part of the crowd and lead them).  So, please be more understanding of people, you never know the genius you are discounting.