Here is a parable of my own concoction.
Sammy
A Parable
Once upon a time there was a man named Sammy. Sammy was paraplegic, but he didn't know it. Sammy thought he had exactly the same capacity, and responsibility, to get around and navigate life precisely the way "everybody else does".
Nobody else noticed Sammy was paraplegic, either. Sure, they noticed he was a bit...unorthodox in his ways, a little quirky, occasionally annoying, that it took him rather longer to get to the office, that he didn't rush to the water cooler for gossip like the rest of the gang, occasionally dropped out of things without satisfactory explanation, but, well, "it takes all kinds." They liked him all the same (at least most of them did ), even if it meant making certain allowances.
One day Sammy was watching some videos about people called "paraplegics." As he watched, something started making awful, wonderful sense. He thought, no, it can't be. But then he looked down at his paralyzed legs and realized, "Oh my God. That's me."
Sammy felt both elated and slightly terrified at the sudden clarity of it all. Would it be ridiculous after all this time to tell everybody he was paraplegic? But...how could he not? It was too late to un-see what he'd seen, and he wasn't going to pretend, so what could "not telling anybody" even mean anyway?
Sammy went online and ordered a beautiful motorized wheelchair. When it was delivered he tried it out and, of course, it was just amazing.
When he got to work the next day, his coworkers were very perplexed. Something was different. "What is it, Sammy? There's something about you. You look fresher, more relaxed, more...well, like you but even more so! Did you get a haircut? Is it a new cologne?"
Sammy mentioned his paralyzed legs and the wheelchair. Suddenly they saw it and went "Oh!!!" Then they went "O-o-ohhh...." And nearly all of them were very glad for Sammy. They felt a little bad that they'd never noticed before but Sammy said that was okay, he hadn't noticed either.
A few of his coworkers were peeved, though, and said things like, "What, are you stupid? Why are you suddenly acting all paraplegic?"
Sammy didn't get mad. He only smiled, because he was empathetic to their discomfort. Plus, he knew he wasn't acting--couldn't even if he wanted to--and that made all the difference. (Plus he knew they'd get over it soon, because people have short attention spans.)
