Not Getting It
I used to be involved in organizing disability awareness days, both in university and later on a larger scale, but these days, I have conflicted feelings about them. With the benefit of hindsight, it became possible to see that too often, such days are “Trot out the Cripples Day” and after it’s all over, people/the…
Pass the Gravol
Last week, when I made a few notes for a post about the new season of Survivor, the document was saved as “Same Old Thing, Yet Highly Entertaining.” For those of you who aren’t interested in reality TV, stick around, because it will evolve into something entirely different. This season does look like it’s going…
Epiphanies
It all started last Thursday morning as I was making my way to the grocery store after having kicked in 30 minutes on work. I’m making a mental list of what I’m going to do after I’ve been shopping, actually keeping it fairly reasonable, trying to take it easy on my shoulder. As I get…
Bridging the Distance
It is both a memory and a defining moment, overlapping and coexisting and still, a decade and a half later, it is as clear in my mind as the day it happened. I was working for a municipal government, part of the team that implemented Ontario’s dearly departed Employment Equity Act. This was a brilliant…
Of Two Minds
It all started on Tuesday when I went to the Market to do some shopping. As I was making my way out again, a busload of tourists was disembarking and several of them seem to find it difficult to remember what their mothers had told them about staring at the unfortunate. Apparently where they came…
Fun with Attendants
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about living independently in the community and how that can be facilitated by attendants. These are people whose job is to be your hands and feet, doing things that you cannot do yourself or that would take an unreasonable amount of time or effort to do. In Ontario,…
Surrender
In a moment of stunning personal growth, I gave up. Stopped fighting. Let go. You know how when you stub your toe, it becomes a magnet for furniture, baseboards and random bric-a-brac lying about? So magnetic, in fact, that the aforementioned items tend to leap out to hit that particular toe over and over again,…
Master of Our Domain
Have you heard of Zach Anner? If not, you’re in for a treat. But first, a soapbox moment. Or two. The other day, I got one of those inspirational e-mails that circle the Internet on a regular basis. This one was a story about a blind boy sitting by a building with a hat by…
Mindlessness
It’s official. I’ve totally lost control of my life. I get up each morning to email in two places and a browser filled with open tabs – love the wee buggers, but if you start the day with that much work lurking, it’s hard not to feel like Sisyphus. The last couple of weeks before…
Getting It
I was at the Market the other day, getting myself some red leaf lettuce, leaves crinkled into tight waves of deepest green and darkest red, put a yellow pepper next to it, watching the colors spark off each other. Waiting to cash out, I made funny faces for a little boy in a stroller, not…
Seeking Inspiration
I’m stalled out. Again. I overdid a bit. Again. I didn’t realize until it’s too late. Again. Will I ever learn? After a week of sitting as still as I’m capable in an attempt to heal, there hasn’t been much progress. I have thoroughly lost my sense of humour, but I’m not sure if that…
Definition in Opposition
There was another thing that struck me in the New York Times’ Patient Voices feature. What struck me was George’s story, in particular the part where he talks about practicing doing certain things over and over again in order to “appear normal”. It struck another of those tender places, because what do you do when…