Paralympics

I have to be honest and say that for a while I wasn’t really interested in the paralympics. As you may well know, I trained as a PE Teacher and love sports of all kinds (with the exception of cricket which never really got in my blood). But I was never really captured my the paralympics. To my shame it felt to me like it wasn’t proper sport. I’m pleased to be able so say that I don’t think like that now and I will no doubt be watching some of the paralympics as it gets underway. I realise now that I had an “who’s in, and who’s out” way of thinking about it: if you’re able, you’re in. You do proper sport. If you’re disabled, you’re out. It’s not proper sport. That’s what I have come to learn is an ableist view of the world. It’s a view of the world seen through the eyes of those who are able bodied. People like me. But I’ve been challenged to think differently. What I realise is that the paralympics enables the athletes to be embraced and included in community in the same way the olympics does for able bodied athletes. Until recently I’d never though of it that way. And it came because I was challenged about the healings of Jesus in the Bible. Perhaps there were bigger things going on in the healings of Jesus, than simply healing. Illness and disability was often understood to be punishment from God and used to exclude people from community, both physically and spiritually. And there was no way back to community apart from healing. So, when Jesus heals, perhaps the bigger thing that’s going on is the opportunity to be restored and fully embraced to community, both physical and spiritual. We might be able to heal like Jesus, but if we live like him, we can offer the full embrace of community. It’s the choice to embrace and not to exclude. And it’s powerful. What is surprising in the gospels is who is welcomed into the community of the kingdom of the heavens. We can welcome and embrace. Or we can judge and exclude. I think I’m learning the power if inclusion and embrace. I will watch the paralympics through new eyes now.