As you may know, my son Lucas was born with a genetic condition called Prader-Willi Syndrome, about which you can read more here. Lucas looks like any other 3 year-old boy except that he uses a walker and stands at 1/2 the size of a typical developing 3 year-old. As one of his teachers exclaimed “he’s the cutest and smallest thing walking on two feet!” His condition and relatively small size are why I was touched by the following video.
The video is the creation of a group called Pro Infirmis for the celebration of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which occurred on December 3. The video features a mannequin designer using real people with visible physical disabilities as the models for mannequins in the window of a department store.
It seems to me the beauty in the documentary is in the people themselves. The mannequin designer shows such compassionate care toward his models, and their vulnerability displays slight hesitance and trust, and one man even conveying reluctance.
The mannequins seem to produce exactly what Pro Infirmis wants to avoid. They remove the thinking and feeling person from the imperfect shell and only display the shell. The mannequin’s face is expressionless, lacking in emotion, void of the marks of suffering, age, experience, and joy.
The video as a whole conveys profoundly the message of Pro Infirmis. In posing as models, we see the apprehension and discomfort from being measured and examined. Their faces light up as their mannequins are revealed. One woman even goes so far as to embrace her mannequin, with a smile from ear to ear. Her smile is not one of mockery, amusement, or embarrassment, but one of comfort, as though the mannequin were familiar to her and she melted into it with a great sense of trust and serenity as she would embracing a close friend or lover.
Yes, the true beauty is not in the mannequin, but in the raw human emotion played out by the models, that spark of life activated by the breath of God which fills all men and can shine even through the darkest of nights. Those moments in the video are truly powerful and help viewers see past the disability into the soul of the individual.
Bravo Pro Infirmis. Bravo.