Sense-Ational

Every day, I watch the kids playing on the grassy yard behind my building, which in addition to the apartment complex, also houses a shelter with a school for kids. Their ebullience and joy at such simple things is an endless delight to witness. I love the cheers and squeals, the laughter and the little snatches of childish conversation that float up to my third story window. And it's not always just children. Whenever the weather is good, there's also basketball among older kids/young adults on a slab of cement in the grass. I love to hear their "oooooh!" when a shot is missed, or laughter at a particularly crafty move. And it's not just what I hear that's delightful. There are ALWAYS people walking to and fro on the sidewalk just beyond the fenced-in yard. Some have backpacks, making me think "student", some drag rolling suitcases. Others walk across the street to the shelter OPPOSITE and walk up the stairs to (I presume) volunteer within. Some drive their walkers up the ramp just to the left of the front door, making this arrangement of the entrance one of the few I've seen that truly embodies "separate AND equal", for the Disabled. So many of them go the other way, with the entrances for the Disabled clearly separate but not equal at all in their ease of access to the front door. Considering so many of these buildings downtown were surely built around the same time, you'd think they'd ALL have taken steps to ensure ease of access for everyone. Clearly it's not everyone's priority. But before I let that lead me into a major tangent, let me return to the delights of the senses. And this goes along with the entry "Lessons in ADA and TTY", where some businesses are learning to adapt for everyone. Not all of us have the use of each of our five senses. Hence, the invention of a TTY device to bridge the gap between those who can't hear and those who can. Occasionally from the street I'll smell something really wonderful cooking. Once it was fried chicken, another time I could swear there was cotton candy being made just below me! Very often people forget that we even HAVE five senses, it seems to be. Many times I've run across people who think that my use of the walker means I'm also blind, for some reason. Maybe they think this because one of my eyes turns inward in a permanent crossed-eyed look, which I could get fixed with surgery but...meh...why elect to go under? So these people freak out if they see me waiting at a crossroads and push my walker even an inch or so in front of me. "There's a car!" They exclaim--to make up for the visual impairment they imagine I have. And it is true that to see all the way around, I have to move my head. But they forget I have ears on either side of my head, and they serve me quite well in determining when a car is coming toward me. So I appreciate their concern for me, and I do understand it. But surprise surprise, I am in full possession of my faculties, and I can handle myself. Listening to the pleasures of the street, smelling the delicacies below, has only sharpened my skills at using all that I have. Maybe I don't MOVE like a ninja, with the stealth and speed of a covert warrior--but I have their skill. And that's just as useful. Take the late, magnificent Stephen Hawking for example. His movements were very, very limited, but he was brilliant. Consider Helen Keller, who without the distractions of sight or sound, could focus entirely on the world she "saw" in her mind. To read her autobiography, https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=jkl-hNcql2cC&source=productsearch&utm_source=HA_Desktop_US&utm_medium=SEM&utm_campaign=PLA&pcampaignid=MKTAD0930BO1&gclid=CjwKCAjwpIjZBRBsEiwA0TN1r7KkHSFNHDneO8Qxgzi0-cyOP6E5XmjiANX5lM34AAyxruOQTtMEwBoC8twQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=COSV_4PJ09sCFYXewAodZjkExw is to read as if from the perspective a PERFECTLY "able" person. You would never guess, from the way she describes her childhood home, that Keller couldn't see it. In today's world consumed by screens--computer, iPhone, iPad, Apple Phone, Apple watch, digital clocks, digital watches, Apple...it goes on forever...people ignore what else this world can offer. And that's why I think those with disabilities are so easy for them to forget. Because we are forced to use what they forget. Who would pay any attention to the one person going way off to the side to use a ramp, when a crowd of happy people is bounding up the stairs?