The following video is about a 54 year old man who has a story to tell only because his parents flouted ‘traditional wisdom’. Funny how often contemporary practice is later shown to be completely wrong.

These parents were told to institutionalize him at birth, as was the accepted norm, but refused. Otherwise, he would have been one of the anonymous masses of disadvantaged infants that were never given a chance to be loved and cared for, and were instead warehoused in institutions with minimal care and certainly without love and nurturing, until their premature deaths.

Instead, his parents brought him home and raised him like their other sons. They were the ones who gave him his first real chance at life, who continued to make choices throughout the years they raised him, creating more and more opportunities for him.

To me, that’s what this video is about. It’s not about public speaking, it’s not about college.  It’s not about the salary you earn, how smart you are, or how high you climb on the ladder of someone else’s success. It’s about giving each person a chance to participate fully in life.

Avivah