Weak?

In class, the "weak" were defined as the ugly, the meek, the weak in physical capability, the ignorant, the ones who seem to have gotten the short end of the stick. The "strong" were defined as all the opposites of those: the beautiful, the confident, the fastest, the strongest, the smartest, and all the rest who seem to have been born blessed by the universe.

I challenge that idea.

I don't buy it. I simply don't see the truth in that. There are too many "exceptions to the rule" to keep pretending that they are just exceptions. I refuse to believe that strength is something we are handed like a good hand is dealt in a game of Poker. I believe in the one thing that we mentioned in class the other day that makes human beings different from a table or a cat: transcendence. We have the ability to do and be anything we want to. The only thing stopping us is...us. Like Dr. Johnson said, I have the freedom to say yes at any moment to saving the starving child in Brazil, but instead I choose daily to pretend to be a student, and to say no to saving that child. But I could say yes. That is what makes us strong, in my opinion. Our decision to say yes to admitting to ourselves our own transcendence. Our decision to not simply accept how things are and say, "this is just how it is." 

For example, let's look at some well known representations of our amazing ability to transcend our circumstances: Wilma Rudolph, Stephen Hawking, and the enabled "disabled" or determined "broken" people.

This woman: weak because of her disability, or strong because of her determination? 

For those who don't know, Wilma Rudolph had polio as a child and couldn't even walk. She was told that she would have no chance of ever walking again. She refused, however, to accept this as fate, and worked with her mother and others for years on regaining control of her legs. As an adult, Wilma became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field during a single Olympic Games. Rudolph was considered the fastest woman in the world in the 1960s and competed in two Olympic Games, in 1956 and in 1960. How does this fit into the weak/strong idea?