"a better man than me" - 12/9/2011

Jason Dunn is 33 and has no college degree.

He has a winning smile and lots of friends.

He suffers from Dystonia, a disease that compresses and contorts his body as if God were crushing him with an invisible trash compactor.

I met him while I was volunteering at the Rust Belt Market "No-So-Silent-Rally" tonight.

Not exactly true--"Paul Sunny" met him. 

Paul walked past the vending station that Jason's caretaker Delia was managing. Paul looked down at the man who didn't speak and stayed low to the ground. Paul wasn't sure what to make of what the crippled man, but behind his sunglasses he could sneak a peek and continue on his way.

Towards the end of the night, though, Paul decided to come back and really look at Jason. Stare, actually. To do what "good" people never do--gawk at the disabled.

Paul started to savor the schadenfreude standing tall above this...this...problem.

Then I sat down at Jason's level. I took off my sunglasses.

I asked him his name. With difficulty, he tenaciously spelled it out with one, long spastic finger. "JASON."

I asked him his age, about his education. 

I asked him if he believed in God.

He wrote back, "TOUCHY SUBJECT."

I replied, "I know. You're thinking, 'WHY??????'"

Jason typed, "NOT JUST MY PROBLEMS BUT THE WHOLE WORLD'S"

He went on to tell me that National Geographic had done a special on him, and that he had been "normal" up until age 6. 

Delia was the latest of several family members and friends who gave of their time to help care for Jason.

Jason wrote, "I'M WAITING FOR THEM TO FIND THE CURE."

I asked him what he would do when they found it.

He replied that he would go to work for his uncle's heating and cooling company.

I suggested that he might want to write a book.

He said he would consider it.

He looked so helpless, yet he was more powerful than me on my best day.

I gave him my sunglasses and they fit him perfectly.

It wasn't out of pity...it was because he deserved that I show him some dignity. He deserved my help to show the world who he really was. 

With tears of remorse for the twists in my soul that mirrored the twists in his body, I connected with another human being that has had a strange hand dealt to him. He's playing it quite well.