Respecting the Crash
By noon last Tuesday, I was exhausted. This is not a good sign two days into the work week. I kept going, pushing through the haze of tired and somehow made it to the weekend. Saturday was spent moving in glue and looking with dread at a week filled with entirely too much, but not…
In Other Words: Thoughts on Language and Disability
On January 23, someone I know forwarded me a link to an article (now gone) from the Canadian national newspaper the Globe and Mail. The headline “Rheumatoid Arthritis: not the life sentence it used to be” is certainly an attention grabber. It is a good article. It’s accurate in its discussion of the science and it…
Liberated
It is almost Valentine’s Day and tales of love flutter about wherever you look. They are like verbal cupids with wings made of verbs, nouns, adjectives and altogether improper punctuations, for love brings with it a gush of emotion not responsive to the strictures of grammar. And these tales of love are this year…
Once We Were Caged
This post is my commemoration of the International Day of Mourning and Memory of the Lives of People with Disabilities. This is a day of remembrance of those who were institutionalized, abused and killed for being different. It is a day to remember those who came before us and who fought hard to make the…
International Day of Mourning and Memory
Dave over at Rolling Around in my Head is spearheading an initiative to create a day of awareness and remembrance called the International Day of Mourning and Memory of the lives of People with Disabilities. In his words, the day would: “be one of remembrance of those whose lives were not celebrated or remembered, the…
The AID Principle or How to Open a Door
Sometimes, you meet someone who really gets it. I was swinging by my dentist with the latest payment on the crown that cost enough that I’m sure it’s made of a giant ruby. Since nobody was about on the sidewalk, I knocked on the window and waved madly to catch the attention of someone who…
Resolved
It’s commonplace to make promises to yourself around this time of year and normally, my primary promises to not get caught up in the resolution obsession. Too often, it leads to a severe case of self-loathing as you take stock of your life and find it wanting, making promises to yourself that you don’t keep….
Leading with Joy
“You must be very angry.” This was the (rather leading) question of one of the journalists I spoke during my brief tenure of being a spokesperson for the Health Council of Canada. We’d been discussing the eight months I waited for funding approval for Enbrel, of how the RA ate my life and made me…
Talking About the Money
“You assume that it’s all covered.” It was at the tail end of my interview with the CBC – no, not shameless name dropping, actually relevant to this post. (shameless self-promotional links to two of last week’s interviews at the end of this post). I was chatting with the reporter and cameraman as the equipment…
Everything – A Re-Post
On Monday, in the Health Council of Canada video I talked about the consequences of not being able to get the medication you need because of cost. Yesterday, I posted my guest blog for the Help Council of Canada about the cost of chronic illness. Today, I’d like to shares something I posted back in…
The Cost of Chronic Illness
This week, I’m one of the spokespeople for the Health Council of Canada in relation to the release of their latest report on how Canadians with chronic diseases rate their health care system. Today, my guest blog appears on their blog site. I wrote about the cost of chronic illness: When we talk about the…
Anger and Shame
As you’ve no doubt noticed, I’ve been pretty angry lately. It happens when I’m very tuned into political issues. And it happens a lot when I’m tuned into political issues that relate to vulnerable populations (usually double levels of injustice). Lately, I’ve been blogging a lot about disability issues and well… This is one of…