You're Not Your Label | Alvin Law - video Dailymotion

Goalcast

Speaker and musician Alvin Law challenges you to live your life undefined by labels.

Transcript

00:00 What happened to you?

00:02 Can you imagine how long ago I got tired of answering that question?

00:05 But the fact of the matter is, my physical form, my story, is indeed part of the very

00:12 powerful message that I believe surrounds attitude.

00:15 I was on a plane going to Vegas a couple of weeks ago, and a lady was sitting beside me

00:19 on the plane.

00:19 The plane took off.

00:20 She seemed to be uncomfortable.

00:22 That's not uncommon.

00:24 All she did was look at me and go, one word, "thalidomide."

00:29 Thalidomide was never meant to be given to pregnant women.

00:33 In fact, it was a sedative, and it was supposed to be so safe, they thought that anybody could

00:37 take it.

00:38 Now, the drug was banned in 1963, thank God, because it by then had only deformed over

00:43 20,000 babies.

00:45 It could have been hundreds of thousands had the drug continued to live on.

00:48 Now, it's interesting because this is what she went on to say.

00:51 "I didn't take those pills.

00:53 Something told me to throw them in the garbage, and I am so glad I did because I was blessed

00:59 with healthy, normal babies."

01:01 The point is, thalidomide was a terrible, terrible thing.

01:06 But that's not how I see it in my own personal life.

01:10 My life started in a very unorthodox fashion.

01:14 There is no question that being born without arms is not something people would wish for,

01:20 right?

01:21 They called us the victims.

01:23 I disagree.

01:26 August 23, 1985 was the first time in my life I ever considered how my own mother and father

01:32 must have felt the first time they held me.

01:34 And then it occurred to me an even more powerful thought.

01:37 My mom was 55 years old the first time she held me, and my dad was 53, and I was an orphan

01:43 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, because my birth family were consulted and counseled and advised

01:50 to simply sign papers and give me up.

01:53 Because in 1960, babies born with severe handicaps had no life.

01:58 So on the fourth day of my life, I was homeless.

02:01 Enter my life, the changers.

02:04 Hilda Law, Jack Law.

02:07 So Hilda was my primary caregiver.

02:09 Hilda had an attitude that is very difficult for me to describe.

02:12 She saw something that nobody else saw, and that was, yes, indeed, a positive potential.

02:21 They loved me.

02:22 They took me home.

02:23 They were charitable.

02:24 They were very, very powerful in their faith.

02:27 But not one time did I view them as nice, okay?

02:30 I had to make my bed every morning before school.

02:32 I had to pick up my toys every night before bed.

02:34 I had to vacuum the carpet three times a week because Mother expected neatness.

02:38 Wondering every day, "Do you really love me?"

02:41 I knew that I would not easily climb Mount Everest.

02:44 I knew there were certain things that were impossible for me.

02:47 And then one day I found a piano.

02:50 And that was huge.

02:55 I'm looking at my feet.

02:56 I'm watching the piano.

02:57 I'm thinking, "I'm going to suck at this, too."

02:59 That's how I felt.

03:00 But Mom heard me play, and she came racing down to the basement.

03:03 And she said, "Was that you?"

03:04 I gave the standard 10-year-old answer, "Do you see anybody else down here?"

03:07 And then she made me play it again.

03:09 And then she stood behind the piano crying.

03:13 I would ask my mother.

03:15 In fact, quite frankly, it was the week she met my son,

03:18 "Why did you cry behind the piano that day?"

03:20 She said, "You don't really understand, do you?"

03:25 "What?"

03:26 "How hard it was to be with you every day.

03:28 To see the looks.

03:30 To see the stares.

03:32 To hear the insults.

03:33 But more than anything, the hardest part, Alvin, was to push you beyond belief.

03:38 It was within every illogical thought in my brain to not do that to you.

03:44 To not force you.

03:46 To not challenge you.

03:47 To not take you to extremes that people thought I was cruel with you.

03:51 Do you have any idea what that felt like?"

03:53 That's why I cried.

03:55 "Hello, Mrs. Law.

03:56 My name is Blaine McCleary.

03:57 I'm the band director for the Yorkton City Band Program.

03:59 Do you have a son named Alvin?"

04:01 "We do."

04:02 "Does Alvin have a talent for music that you're aware of?

04:04 Do you think he'd like to be in the band?"

04:06 "Well, Mr. McCleary, probably a good time to tell you that Alvin sort of has no arms."

04:11 "Hello?"

04:16 But when I walked in the house and saw my mom smiling in 1971, I'll never forget that smile.

04:21 I'll never forget that day.

04:23 She had a great smile.

04:24 Ugly teeth.

04:24 Great smile.

04:25 She goes, "Honey, I got news for you.

04:27 You're going to be in the band!"

04:28 "What band?"

04:30 "School band."

04:30 "How'd that happen?"

04:31 "I don't know.

04:32 We're going to go to the school and find out right now.

04:33 Get in the car.

04:34 We're going to the school."

04:34 On the way to the school, she told me about the first phone call that happened six weeks earlier.

04:39 She didn't tell me about it because the guy hung up.

04:42 He didn't want to hurt my feelings.

04:43 And then she said, "But he called back this morning."

04:46 "He says he's got an instrument for you to play."

04:48 "A trombone."

04:49 "A trombone, for God's sake."

04:52 And like a game show host, he went, "What do you think?"

04:54 "I was 11.

04:56 What do you think, I thought?

04:57 It was the stupidest looking thing I'd ever seen in my entire life."

04:59 "Well, can you move the slide with your foot?"

05:01 "Yeah, I can do that."

05:02 "Wow, I can do that.

05:03 That's cool."

05:03 "Can you make this noise?"

05:04 "Okay, good.

05:06 Can you do it in the mouthpiece and move the slide?"

05:07 "Yeah."

05:08 "Well, this noise came out."

05:10 "11-year-olds love noise, don't they?"

05:12 "But I particularly was affected.

05:13 I love that sound.

05:15 Just a feeling."

05:16 That day changed the pathway of my life.

05:20 What really changed my world?

05:23 Was it the trombone?

05:25 Not exactly.

05:26 The girls didn't want to date me because they couldn't quite grasp holding onto this.

05:31 That's what makes my wife Darlene that much more special.

05:34 She doesn't see the outside.

05:36 She sees the human.

05:37 And there is a difference.

05:39 My life and music is what changed it all.

05:44 Music taught me that life does not change in one day, in one week, in one year.

05:51 It takes steps after step after step after step after step.

05:54 Alright, you can clap for that if you'd like.

06:05 Why did I just do that?

06:08 To show off?

06:09 Yeah.

06:11 To impress you?

06:14 Yeah.

06:14 I want to impress you.

06:16 Because of my ego?

06:19 No.

06:20 See, that was the most important thing that I learned in my professional life.

06:24 In my opinion, and it is my opinion, you earn joy.

06:30 It is not a human right.

06:32 You attain success.

06:34 I got a label.

06:36 It's fixed right on my forehead.

06:38 And it used to bug me.

06:40 Until it occurred to me, I just have to change what the label says.

06:45 That's all I got to do.

06:46 It's not going to be easy because I'm asking society an awful lot

06:51 to see the human inside the disability.

06:54 But the fact is, it took me a long time to come to that conclusion.

06:58 We've all got labels.

06:59 Let's just change the label.

07:01 Let's change the label from victim to victor.

07:04 Let's change the label to one that says, "I am."

07:08 I am.

07:10 Who I am.

07:12 [Music]

07:26 [Silence]

You're Not Your Label | Alvin Law

Category

Transcript

Recommended