I often hesitate to admit that I have Neurofibromatosis-Type-One (NF-1) because people's attitudes towards me having it have caused great emotional pain that has often been harder to live with than any pain caused by a neurofibroma. Meanwhile, it is important for me to mention the condition because not only has it shaped my art-work, but I owe the community of those diagnosed with NF-1 as well as NF-2, any awareness that can be raised. Joseph Merrick, the man associated with Elephant Man's Disease (often confused with NF) used to sign his letters with this poem by Isaac Watts:
"Tis true my form is something odd,
But blaming me is blaming God.
Could I create myself anew,
I would not fail in pleasing you.
If I could reach from pole to pole,
Or grasp the ocean with a span,
it would be measured by the soul,
The mind's the standard of the man."
Admittedly, my case of NF is nothing, nothing, nothing compared to Mr. Merrick's, but the emotional pain, brought on by my reaction to other people's remarks, has evoked a very similar response, especially as a child.
