Inspirational

I have been watching this season of Dancing With the Stars. In my next life, I'd love to be a ballroom dancer. For now, though, I am content to watch other non-dancers learn how to dance. It gives me some sort of hope that I will somehow convince my husband to want to dance and that we will start taking dance classes and be the coolest couple ever to chaperon a youth dance. Okay....maybe I'm kidding about that last part and I do realize it is a complete fantasy and is about as likely to happen as me starting at linebacker for BYU next fall. Anyhow, I digress. I wanted to comment on Marlee Matlin.

I realize I am a week behind in making a comment on this but since we were travelling and I had the show on my Tivo, I just watched it last night around midnight as Lincoln refused to sleep. I didn't mind being up so late since I was completely blown away, yet again, by this amazing woman.

Marlee is profoundly deaf. Her main form of communication is sign language. She won an Oscar for her role in Children of a Lesser God and has appeared in several other things as a deaf woman. She does speak but usually signs and hears very little but was able to learn how to dance. For you Seinfeld fans out there, she was Jerry's girlfriend who they used to read George's ex-girlfriend's lips at a party. Great episode....

Anyhow, the judges were amazed each week with her performance. They continued to comment on how blown away they were that she was able to learn these dances even though she can't hear the music. I happen to have a little girl who also does not hear all of the music but absolutely loves to dance. I watch her dance through her life, waving her arms and twirling around. There must be an entire soundtrack in her head because she seems to be constantly dancing. I guess that is why Marlee is an inspiration to me. She reminded me that there is no reason that deafness should limit someone. Congratulations to her!