Speaker and musician Alvin Law challenges you to live your life undefined by labels.
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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.
06:19 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]