Amy Weaver: "Hope Collects Like Dust"

[Applause] hope collects like dust on fairy tale endings like the Lost Smiles of forgotten children who live their lives in isolation like Monsters or prisoners waiting for visitors to remember they exist no long ago I walked into a crowd of McDonald's in Baton rou Louisiana saw this girl working finger to Bone scrubbing dried ketchup mustard onions off old famica tables bagging up the careless trash of people who don't look twice in her Direction I wanted to make her feel special worthwhile I wanted so badly to see a smile on his face burdened with the undo lines of her reality with the tired lines of normality I just wanted something important to say to this face that reminds me of a miracle you see hers is a face that reminds me of home she my brother share a chromosome the CH 3 at 21 it's called Down syndrome before he was born I prayed vigorously almost dangerously that he would be born healthy a father who are in heaven please let this child be normal I didn't understand then sometimes in life God gives you more than you bargain for but it's never more than you can handle as long as you look to him for Solutions and you're not asking for reasons why because Dylan man he didn't happen to us this beautiful little boy was life and needed more than anything for his family to be strong it took me too long to realize that the gift of our family is strength early on doctors warned that life for him would be a struggle stacked with Lowered Expectations a lack of imagination but they didn't know him couldn't predict what he'd become had seen him speak to ghosts and dance with Imaginary Friends [ __ ] y'all that boy has more Rhythm than me he moves with the freedom of nobody's watching it's just sparkk from within God's Gift of Innocence that will last his lifetime it's his smile his strength he has no concept of weakness no language for anger spin his turbulence into screaming Fist and Swings with all his might and he bows his head at night and prays in a tongue only God can understand he curs his lips with such starm he could s a dragon's find I would die a thousand times s to make his laughter last forever if in his struggle for normality his smile wouldn't be lost in places like Mickey D's traded for the brutal and tired lines of the ordinary as she works finger to Bone to make something of his life empty discarded rappers like fear from overflowing bins like discarded people who exist on the fringes of our reality waiting for us to remember that they are alive and beautiful you have the power to change a life today to heal the wounds of indignity for one who struggles daily with unforgiving labels and awkward stairs it begins here and who change you so smile and speak and love fearlessly believe in the immutable power of Magic Make Believe and fairy tell LS understand that we are all connected and our differences are not defeats they are God's gifts please don't waste them passing by indifferent stone-faced or silent h [Music]