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of normalcy back then. but if you ask me today, iamp。s been a shift in my thinking over time, in that, if you had asked me at 15 years old, if i would have traded prosthetics for fleshandbone legs, i wouldnamp。s a difference between the medical condition and what someone might do with it. and thereamp。 see, dr. kean made that shift in thinking. he understood that thereamp。in my experience, unless repeatedly told otherwise, and even if given a modicum of support, if left to their own devices, a child will achieve.amp。s life. and dr. kean went on to tell me, he said, amp。 (laughter) (applause) the extraordinary thing is that he said he had saved newspaper clippings throughout my whole childhood, whether winning a second grade spelling bee, marching with the girl scouts, you know, the halloween parade, winning my college scholarship, or any of my sports victories, and he was using it, and integrating it into teaching resident students, med students from hahnemann medical school and hershey medical school. and he called this part of the course the x factor, the potential of the human will. no prognosis can account for how powerful this could be as a determinant in the quality of someoneamp。ve been making liar out of me ever since.amp。i had to give this prognosis to your parents that you would never walk, and you would never have the kind of mobility that other kids have or any kind of life of independence, and youamp。s prenatal physician had gone on vacation, so the man who delivered me was a plete stranger to my parents. and, because i was born without the fibula bones, and had feet turned in, and a few toes in this foot and a few toes in that, he had to be the bearer this stranger had to be the bearer of bad news. he said to me, amp。s stories of that day, because, of course, typical fashion, i arrived late for my birthday by two weeks. and so my motheramp。 (laughter) oh, that guy. and, but of course, actually, it did click. this man was dr. kean, a man that i had only known about through my motheramp。s womb.amp。t remember meeting me. i mean, when we met i was delivering you from your motheramp。well, you wouldnamp。 he said, amp。t remember meeting you.amp。m sorry, sir, have we met? i donamp。iamp。s this older man. i have no idea who he is. and i said, amp。 and i turn around, and itamp。t aimee mullins.amp。well, if it isnamp。 they were seen as rare and valuable. a few years ago, i was in a food market in the town where i grew up in that red zone in northeastern pennsylvania, and i was standing over a bushel of tomatoes. it was summertime: i had shorts on. i hear this guy, his voice behind me say, amp。39。39。39。39。39。39。39。39。39。39。39。39。39。39。39。39。s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor is it the most intelligent that survives。re less burdened by the presence of it. this year we celebrate the 200th birthday of charles darwin, and it was 150 years ago, when writing about evolution, that darwin illustrated, i think, a truth about the human character. to paraphrase: itamp。s not about devaluing, or negating, these more trying times as something we want to avoid or sweep under the rug, but instead to find those opportunities wrapped in the adversity. so maybe the idea i want to put out there is not so much overing adversity as it is opening ourselves up to it, embracing it, grappling with it, to use a wrestling term, maybe even dancing with it. and, perhaps, if we see adversity as natural, consistent and useful, weamp。s a partnership between those perceived deficiencies and our greatest creative ability. so itamp。s worth to our munity. so we need to see through the pathology and into the range of human capability. and, most importantly, thereamp。t put the first brick in a wall that will actually disable someone. perhaps the existing model of only looking at what is broken in you and how do we fix it, serves to be more disabling to the individual than the pathology itself. by not treating the wholeness of a person, by not acknowledging their potency, we are creating another ill on top of whatever natural struggle they might have. we are effectively grading someoneamp。ve had to confront is the world ever thinking that i could be described by those definitions. in our desire to protect those we care a