【正文】 t weamp。39。ve created for ourselves is this idea of normalcy. now, whoamp。39。s normal? thereamp。39。s no normal. thereamp。39。s mon, thereamp。39。s typical. thereamp。39。s no normal, and would you want to meet that poor, beige person if they existed? (laughter) i donamp。39。t think so. if we can change this paradigm from one of achieving normalcy to one of possibility or potency, to be even a little bit more dangerous we can release the power of so many more children, and invite them to engage their rare and valuable abilities with the munity.
　　anthropologists tell us that the one thing we as humans have always required of our munity members is to be of use, to be able to contribute. thereamp。39。s evidence that neanderthals, 60,000 years ago, carried their elderly and those with serious physical injury, and perhaps itamp。39。s because the life experience of survival of these people proved of value to the munity. they didnamp。39。t view these people as broken and useless。 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。quot。well, if it isnamp。39。t aimee mullins.amp。quot。 and i turn around, and itamp。39。s this older man. i have no idea who he is.
　　and i said, amp。quot。iamp。39。m sorry, sir, have we met? i donamp。39。t remember meeting you.amp。quot。
　　he said, amp。quot。well, you wouldnamp。39。t remember meeting me. i mean, when we met i was delivering you from your motheramp。39。s womb.amp。quot。 (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。39。s stories of that day, because, of course, typical fashion, i arrived late for my birthday by two weeks. and so my motheramp。39。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。quot。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。39。ve been making liar out of me ever since.amp。quot。 (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。39。s life. and dr. kean went on to tell me, he said, amp。quot。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。quot。
　　see, dr. kean made that shift in thinking. he understood that thereamp。39。s a difference between the medica