3.2.7 A Tribute to Luis
What is normal?
Normal is a man that looks at himself in the mirror.
He sees two eyes staring back at him.
He finds them ugly but is that right?
Or is it part of his own fight?
Is ugly just a label that is given to his kind?
And is this society totally blind?
Can they not see deeper than the skin to discover this beautiful shining star within.
Which is shy to go show himself out there, because of criticism of which he is aware.
He doesn't look like you and me,
He's wearing glasses – he doesn't see so easily.
But for me he's not different because of this.
It is society that decides what normal is, it is normal that you can use scissors when you are 30 years old, but if your parents never teach you, its not your fault.
It is NOT your fault.
It is normal when you are studying theatre you have been in one.
But what if you have no money to pay it?
Your friends can go but you cannot and because of money you miss out on alot.
Is it normal that a photo camera makes a photo when you press on a button.
'I don't think so' says Louis
'I want to see this camera piece by piece'
'I want to examine every bit and know how a photo is made in here.
Why can my face suddenly appear?'
For me everything is surprising and I always ask why?
Like the child in me who is never shy.
Normality is part of the culture in which I am living,
Why can people not look at what I am giving?
Why do they always look at what is not there?
Are they not aware ?
Now I would like to turn things around and ask you to be in my shoes for today.
Seeing beauty in another way.
I like a clock with nice clear numbers and nothing around.
So I can enjoy only the rhythm of the sound.
I like two golden door knobs with an umbrella hanging on it for the rain that falls outside.
Why is everybody so polite?
I want to be a music star and play on a spanish guitar with my family as my own band.
Creating my life as my own event.
The audience can look at me and be happy with what they see.
In this poem I wrote down the feelings I had after hearing the translation of louis's explanation which you can see below... I didnt know that people with down syndrome are consciencely aware of their own appearance...! It touched my heart deeply...*
Therefore I included the translation of louis's explanation after completing his set design.