First:
"Don't you love it when you are at the bank and the teller turns and yells to you, "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" I always say, 'I'm not sitting on my brains and my ears, I'm sitting on my ass."
Then:
"People tell me that I'm their hero because I go to the gym and work out, I tell them that if I'm going to be your hero buy me a freaking cape."
Then:
"After my workout I get in the pool and go for a swim. I do laps. I love it when some young guy comes along, muscles all pumped. He gets in the pool and sees me swimming and thinks that he can outdo me, I'm just a woman after all. Then after two laps he's gasping for air and I'm still going. Then I get out of the pool and lift myself into my wheelchair. 'Yeah, buddy you got beat by a woman and not only that she's a cripple."
Then:
"I hate it when I'm out waiting for the bus and I see someone, usually with a fancy car, pull into the disabled parking spots to drop off their kids. I went over to one guy and said, 'This is disabled parking, you shouldn't be using this space,' you know what he said to me, 'Why do they have disabled parking at a gym, what would disabled people need a gym for?' I didn't say anything, I just pointed down at my wheelchair, like could you maybe notice?"
I love it, just love it, when I meet someone with a disability who enjoys a disability chin wag. It's fun to just talk and laugh about the experiences we share. It just feels so liberating. I have to say though, for the people around listening to the conversation - I didn't put my half in - were a little bit shocked. I think primarily after they realized that we, the others, were making them 'others' for a change. And they didn't like the outsider status one bit.
I couldn't feel sorry for them though, I was just enjoying being 'in' from the 'out' side.
On my Facebook page (public) I shared a photo someone put up. It is a handicapped parking spot with the stencil of a wheelchair, and the words:
ReplyDelete'Is this the only time you put yourself in my place?'
I wish I could credit the author.
sounds like a great conversation....and those of us who are temporarily able bodied would benefit from observing, listening, and learning...
ReplyDeleteMy favorite was the time a guy came up to my husband (recovering from a spinal cord injury) and I (fibromyalgia) and told us disabled people shouldn't have nice big trucks........huh?????
ReplyDeleteKaren,
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing that guy
1. Assumed that disabled people never work and can only afford a vehicle via disability benefits (aka money from the government aka his tax money)
2. Completely failed to understand why some people with disabilities may have a legitimate need for a larger vehicle without which they might be unable to use said vehicle.
3. Thinks disabled people never go anywhere "important" unless it is to the hospital. Thinks that the only reason a person with a disability ever leaves home (other than going to hospital) is if they want fun, which he sees as a luxury item that disabled people shouldn't "need" to have.
4. Thus he assumes that a big van with a lift in it or other vehicle specially designed for wheelchair users are a luxury item, failing to recognize that some people with disabilities have a legitimate need for a larger vehicle designed to meet their needs. (I don't know if you and your husband were in or near such a vehicle, but even if not he might have seen other wheelchair riders using a van with a lift or other large vehicle)
5. Thinks the government is being too nice to disabled people by giving them "luxury" items like a "nice big truck". (See #1 above re, assuming that disabled people cannot earn an income through employment.) Thinks disabled people should stop abusing his tax dollars and give up the "nice big trucks" he thinks all disabled people have for no good reason.
All this is just a guess, though.
Andrea
Someone just the other day was explaining to me how only "fit" people can exercise properly. "If you cannot jump or run or do pushups, how can you say you properly exercise?"
ReplyDeleteThe stupid, it burns.