Basketball madness!!!
Our school sports day grew over the years until it became more of a 'festival of sport' that encompassed team sports, as well as more traditional track and field.

One year our school basketball team were playing their traditional exhibition match, when the coach decided that the team's water boy & mascot could have a quick game for the last few minutes. This lad had always been there for the team over the years, providing not only physical support & encouragement, but he had somehow become an embodiment of the team's spirit. His mild mental handicap was never seen as a handicap as such, but rather a mere part of what was a wonderful whole.

During his brief time on court, he played like a basketball god, scoring over 60 points singlehandedly, three-pointer after three-pointer. Not only did he win the game but he made us all feel a bit better about our own niggling doubts and fears about those who live with a mental handicap or condition such as autism.

Thankfully we could regard him as charming and cute (like the little brother character in the film 'What's eating Gilbert Grape?') rather than having to take real time and effort to understand and accommodate some appalling and frankly unattractive debilitating condition. You know, something that involved dribbling and that unintelligible speech that's just plain embarrassing.

Anyway the whole episode made us feel momentarily better, before we returned to the grinding misery and grief-wracked drudgery of our little, pointless lives, exchanging barrages of hate on once amusing message boards.
( petuniadb, Wed 5 Apr 2006, 9:28, Reply)