The "I" Pad

I know it probably wasn't purposeful, but I really wish that it was.

I read on a blog somewhere, a while ago, something that I wish I'd written down. First, I'd like to get it right, and I won't remember it exactly. Second, I'd like to be able to link to the blog and give the author the credit for the words and idea. The very least I can do in this situation is to simply acknowledge that the idea here did not originate with me.

It didn't strike me at the time, the way it did days later. Ideas are like that aren't they? Sometimes I'll hear someone give a lecture and find myself, much later, thinking 'Whoa, now I get it!' The writer was writing that mere going out and 'being' different in the world is an act of rebellion, a tiny protest against the status quo. On a certain level, I got it when I read it. I will admit that sometimes I choose to stay in because I don't want to face intrusive eyes and corrosive tones. I've even sat in the car, having to pee, deciding to wait till I get home because I simply don't want to have to navigate through those who disapprove of my weight, those who are annoyed by how I move, those that find I take up too much space. An act of cowardice? Maybe. An act of self preservation? Maybe. An act of complicity in my own oppression? Maybe. Whatever it is, it is.

So, back to them, rolling out of the Metro grocery store near us and seeing two young teens. Both boys, both at a table, both looking at one of those kind of electronic tablets. In an instant it seemed that the boy who sat tall in his wheelchair was instructing the other boy in how to do something on the tablet. They were so into what they were doing that they lived entirely in the space between them. They were just friends.

They could have gone home. They could have waited. There is no electronic shop there, they must have chosen to stop there, pull out the gadget and begin the tutorial. I wonder if it was an act of rebellion by one - 'see me here, different'. I wonder if it was an act of rebellion by two - 'see us here, equals'. I hope it was one, or the other. I hope they had an idea that just being there they were making change. They were making the dynamic of their relationship change the dynamic of the landscape. They were giving every single person who passed by a new image of what it is to be boys with shared interests and different abilities. Rebellion. An act of protest. Maybe they made change. I'm guessing they did.

I get it.

I don't always have to write a letter to the editor. I don't always have to confront an attitude. Sometimes I just have to go for a pee, when I need to.