company of strangers

I attended two very different events tonight.

The first event was planned and was based on an interview read yesterday. "The Luck of the Draw and Other Tales of Unnatural Selection" starred 7-fingered Liz Gibson. She is a very inspirational young woman, making lemonade from her birth to two drug-addicted parents. As a direct result of their addictions, she was born with only a thumb and single finger on her right hand. Now, she has a master's degree and four characters to help others learn how to appreciate "defects" through her deformance art.
For the deformance this evening at the small gallery, she had chosen her teenaged persona, Ben Wa Betty, to catch and hold our attention. And that she did, from the green-fur-covered chair with its red "flowers" before her appearance to the very last words of her song encouraging us to "pick the full-petaled flowers". Although the focus was on her current actions to inform and educate the world, I don't believe she is truly aware of what a difference she has already made simply by existing out in the open. She was educated in public schools, so every child and every adult that ever was in her presence was affected in some way.
Hopefully, those people touched by her existence are more open to acceptance of others' physical differences. Maybe, just maybe, they are also more accepting of the less-obvious, internal differences which all people have.
She told four stories, from her own life, of the trials of teenaged girls with physical defects. There was the olderly asian woman who wanted to touch her malformed hand "for good luck". There was the football hero who asked her out, then was appalled on the date when he saw her hand (which had been in her jacket pocket) and couldn't wait for the date to end. There was the man who wanted to date her simply because she had a deformity. There was the bank teller, with her own malformed hand, who was so relieved to meet another pretty girl who had grown up with a defect.
Except for the nature of the defect, her stories could have been those of any teenager. In those sensitive years, any difference from others is perceived to be an insurmountable hurdle. Wrong color of eyes or hair or skin, wrong religion, wrong economic level, wrong grades...with wrong being defined as "different than desired".
Like I said, I did enjoy the talk very much and was glad I was there and not sitting at home in front of a one-eyed monster. (Admittedly, though, without this modern Cyclops I could not post this.)
With that salley forth successful, I decided to go see a movie. So, just a little later, I was off to see "Baggage Claim" at the Spotlight, courtesy of Groupon. At first, I noticed some folks at the back of the cinema and was concerned that they might chatter throughout the movie. No worries! When they heard me laughing, they moved up closer and turned out to be two friendly ladies glad to see someone openly enjoying the story. Enjoy it I did, too. It was a very fun movie, eliciting lots of much-needed laughter, and it was nice to have the companionship of strangers.
Odd, but sometimes I need that.
These past three months have taken a toll on my mirth level.
Strangers allow me a respite from hard times.