It was weird. After the presentation here in Corning yesterday, I was tired. But I wanted to go out for a bit and get away from the hotel and the lecture hall. I love presenting in the same hotel as it makes the morning so easy. But by the end of the day, I feel institutionalized and like to get out into real air for a bit.
We drove through downtown Corning, its only a few blocks long but it's pretty. A couple of windows display incredibly glass work and even thought I'm a 'bull in a china shop' kind of guy, I can admire the beautiful fragility of the artwork. From there we went to the grocery store for a wheel around. I found this amazing keg of Root Beer complete with it's own tap - perfect present for the guy who has everything.
The store is well desgined in that it has two wheelchair lanes that are just a little wider and people like me can glide through with ease. We chatted with the nice young woman as we went through the till and suddenly we were back in the hotel. Joe had to go out and do laundry so I had an hour in the hotel on my own.
I couldn't concentrate on the television and didn't feel like surfing the web, so I thought. Something had bothered me about our outing. I hadn't been stared at - excessively anyways. No one said anything either nice or nasty. So it wasn't anything about being disabled in the world. Then it struck me.
I never saw a single guy with an intellectual disability, none with a physical diability.
None bagging groceries. None out with family shopping. None in the cafe attached to the store. None wandering downtown Corning.
Now I know this is pure chance. That I'd gone out during a small window of time where every single person with a disability was off doing something other than being in the world.
But the image of a space free of 'us', free of Down Syndrome and Cerebral Palsy and Spina Bifida and manual chairs and motorized chairs and walkers and canes - chilled me. For a second I saw the world that Hitler wanted, that the gene hunters think as utopia.
It's like a world painted with a pallette that's missing colours.
Who could want that?
6 comments:
I was always amazed at the comments i got about molly kate after her birth....
especially the "OMG I'm so sorry about your baby!!"
If i knew then, what i know now...my best comeback would have been...
"OMG I'm so sorry you DON'T have a child like mine!"
and i really am...it's opened up a whole new world for us...and my older children??? They are SO wealthy in the KNOWLEDGE of diversity...they can see people for what they ARE, not for what they look like. Not just kids with special needs either...it spills over into EVERY aspect of life!
She is the best thing that ever happened to us just in the aspects of being humans on a planet.
I Thank the Heavens for her everyday, and for all the ways she enriches our lives.
*beam*
mom2mollykate
www.myspace.com/downsyndrome_awareness
Well "you" were there in all your glory. :)
You are right though, before I went to England someone emailed me to ask if I could recommend some "welcoming churches." I recommended my own, and another in the next town.
This Sunday, the first back from my trip, there were two new people--one with autism, with a very nice woman who I assume was their support worker. They were so welcomed and I prayed all through the service that we would get it right and that we would represent well the God we worship, who makes all things (and people) well.
What a sad world that would be!
You always weave such incredible stories about the true beauty of our world - every day interactions when you are out and about, etc.
I bet many times some of the people you encounter during your day are sitting at dinner, much like you and Joe, and they begin a story, "I met this really nice man today. He was in a wheelchair, but that's not why I remember him..."
That had to be an eerie realization.
Like you, I love the colors in our pallette. The more color the better.
A lot of people criticised the film version of "V for Vendetta" for the lack of non-white actors in it. They were missing the point - the film is set in a fascist possible-future state which has alreasy exterminated all the non-white people.
For me, that absence was one of the most chilling things about that film - the sheer geyness, grimness, ugliness of a society with no cultural diversity and only one colour of people. As a fan of the original Alan Moore comic, i had quite a lot of criticisms of the film, but that was one thing i thought they got completely, chillingly right - but which, inevitably, was misinterpreted.
This post reminded me of that (and of other dystopian films like "Gattaca")... how cold and empty a world without diversity would be...
I live near Corning and can't believe I didn't know you were coming! I haven't read you in about a month, but oh my God, I would have loved to have seen you.
There actually are a lot of people in scooters and chairs in Corning in particular. You probably went to Wegman's. There is a lot of housing downtown so that people can scooter down Market Street and over to Wegman's and not have to rely on public transportation. There are city ordinances that sidewalks have to be clear so that the people in scooters/chairs can get through. It really is just coincidence that you didn't see anybody. There's a guy named Jimmy who always bikes around town and stops in all the bars/coffee houses/restaurants. He has some kind of intellectual disability, but nothing obvious. He is always greeted with "Jimmy!" wherever he goes. I'm quite proud to live here and sorry you missed it. Perhaps it was the weather.
Chris
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