Mutants

One day I was clicking around on YouTube, and somehow wound up watching some videos about "Tree Man." He is an Indonesian man who has a rare condition that has caused his hands and feet to become overgrown by roots and branches. He has trees growing on his body, even on his face!!
(And no, it's not some YouTube hoax, the Discovery Channel did a show on him too: http://www.discoverychannel.co.uk/myshockingstory/halfman/index.shtml )

And then there was the little girl with 8 limbs! Not to mention all the other freaks I've been watching on Discovery Health. Like all the weird forms of twins (the eight limbed girl is actually a weird twin too). And I learned that the demon babies of YouTube are Harlequin babies, and that one of the "babies" with this rare skin condition is 18-years-old! (See his story at http://www.10news.com/health/3919722/detail.html )

So many freaks in this world!

Then I realized that maybe there's more reality to the comic book X-Men than meets the eye! Maybe one day Tree Man and Limb Girl and Harlequin Dude will unite and begin embracing their uniqueness as gifts instead of trying to get surgery to become "normal." Maybe we'll come to appreciate the special talents that come with a rare condition.

I remember about a year ago, the world's tallest man saved a dolphin because he was able to stick his long arm into the dolphin's stomach and remove whatever was threatening to kill the dolphin.

The movie Unbreakable brings up some good food for thought about the idea of superheros being real people.

One day, the Xmen will unite. And we'll be the ones to put them together. Tree Man works part time in a side show. There he lives and works side by side other "mutants" with deformed faces and extra body parts....