The Greatest Showman Circus Coloring Pages 2

Ringmaster and Circus Performers from The Greatest Showman

This drawing is some of the characters from P. T. Barnum's Circus.  I said this before, but although he had his faults, his employees and cast were grateful to him.  When Barnum lost his fortune it was the little man, Charles Stratton AKA The Little General, who contacted Barnum and offered to have him go on tour of Europe with him.  The result was P. T. Barnum's fortune was restored.  P. T. Barnum made Charles Stratton and his wife Lavinia Warren Stratton very famous and very wealthy.  Small though they both were, they were the biggest of celebrities in their day.  Where other people saw little value in the people with big differences, P. T. Barnum saw a way to make money and those people appreciated their success.

I want to say a bit more about The Greatest Showman's impact on me and society I hope.  I qualify as one of the freaks I guess.  I lived with a trach tube from 8 years old to 16.  I was teased mercilessly.  I did not understand why I was teased so bad.  In fact, I was even teased after I got the trach out.  In the year I got the trach tube out my family moved.  In the new town I was put in a class with all the athletes (jocks) of the school.  I had been pulled out of Little League Baseball when the first tracheotomy was put in when I was 8 years old.  I had not been allowed to participate in sports for 8 years for fear of getting hit in the trach.  In this new school the jocks started to tease me right away.  I was in PE with them and I did not have the normal ball handling skills etc. that they all had.  I did not have the trach anymore, but I was living with the aftermath.  I had a flaming red scar on my neck and no physical education skills or skills in sports.  The memory of their bullying stuck with me so that when I was teaching I always tried to do my best to act if I saw any bullying going on.  To this day I can remember every name I was called when I was bullied as a kid.

I hope that in today's world that people will be kinder.  If you are a victim of bullying then speak out.  In the USA you can probably get relief immediately.  If you are teased know that you are not the problem and you are not inferior to the bully or bullies.  You have a right to be safe and no one has the right to tease or bully you.  If you see bullying then do something about it.  Don't be weak and join in because you are afraid of being the next victim.  Another example:  My Junior year of High School we moved back to my home town where my friend Kurt made sure that no one bullied me.  He never did it in front of me, but he let people know that they better not try.   Thank you Kurt, for standing up for me.  (I drew Kurt and his cat Pipes in a previous post.)

In the movie The Greatest Showman the people with differences are persecuted.  Even so, they learn to celebrate who and what they are.  To this day I consider myself a survivor.  I am proud of that title.  11 years ago my birth defect led to me having to get another trach tube in.  As an adult and in a different environment than 1977 I have been treated with great respect and even admiration.  My school staff and my students were great!  They got used to my wheezy voice and cough and never treated me any differently than before I had the trach tube.  I taught school for 7 years with the trach until heart failure hit.  I taught another 2 years with both problems until it became impossible to continue.  Even doing this blog is painful but I want to contribute in some way and I hope many people are enjoying coloring my drawings.

So Kudos to the movie The Greatest Showman!  It teaches us that we all can contribute in our own way.  .  . and we all have our limitations.  Some of us are classified as "Disabled" but it does not mean we can't do anything.   Our challenge, all of us, is to do our best.  Use whatever talents we have, and share them with others.  I know, for example, that there are clearly better artists out there.  I have two nieces, a grand-nephew, a grand-niece and many former students that have much more talent than I, but I do what I can.  .  . AND I think kids and even some adults enjoy coloring my drawings. 

In my opinion the song:  This Is Me is so inspiring is because pretty much ALL of us have felt, at one time or another, like we were not as good as someone else or we felt we were not part of the group...or we felt like we just did not fit in.  But, as I said before, we all can contribute something.   Another example was my intellectually disabled sister.  She had Down Syndrome.  Her IQ was only about 40.  Yet she contributed.  She went to work for years cleaning theaters.  She had friends in the residential group home where she lived.  She was a sweet, beautiful and lovely person of great value.   She has since passed on and in my opinion she will have in made in the next life.

So recognize that you ARE a person of value.  We ALL have our limitations and times when we don't fit in...but we all have something to contribute! 

Jumbo with Fans

I have also added another drawing of Jumbo.  This is from an old circus poster.  Jumbo was orphaned by poachers and taken to England, where P. T. Barnum purchased him.  In a previous post I told about Jumbo's life and passing.  I should add that if they are treated humanely, animal acts and zoos are one way we, the general public, can appreciate the glorious diversity in our world.  This can lead to us wanting to support programs and etc. to help preserve the lives and habitat for our wild animals on our planet.   By the way, Jumbo was not in the movie.