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I started to put together a collage of pictures I took at the Christmas concerts of my three grandchildren the other night when suddenly my picture collage making program stopped working. Disappointed but persistent, I created a slide show on Flicker you can view at Pulaski Grade and Middle School Christmas Concerts. The computer program malfunction slowed me down but did not defeat my showing these pictures. A collage would have been more creative, but at least the 25 pictures tell the story without words or sounds.

I took a friend with a disability to visit his aging mother suffering from Alzheimer disease today. His mother, although she has seen me many times there and at church, had a hard time recognizing me. I joked with her that I was her “substitute son” and she smiled with a look of recognition.

On the way home my friend and I somehow started to talk about how a stigma stains the soul. His insight into stigmas was that, like cancer, there were many different types of stigmas. According to him there are all kinds of stigmas, like big and small, harmful or funny and bitter or sweet.

One thing I do know about stigmas is that they are like a broken computer program; they can stop you completely from acting or just make a change in how you do things. A stigma or broken commuter program can slow one down but cannot defeat anyone who does not want to be defeated.

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