Out of Hibernation!

Happy New Year, Lovely Readers! It's been shamefully long since I posted, but SO much has been going on lately! Honestly, my schedule is getting away from me, and one of my first purchases of the New Year will be a day planner. Yes, these days even Google has a calendar for your whole agenda, and I could just rely on that to keep me straight. But just because I write something down in my Google calendar doesn't mean I'm going to check said calendar every day! I could miss something, as I did last night, that I had been hoping to attend. I guess that's just another thing I'll have to forgive myself for; I'm not perfect, in fact I make a lot of mistakes, but that's just the way I am. After so many years of my life, I've decided "screwing up" is just something I do, and nothing to get upset over. Which is what I wish I could tell everyone with a disability. So many of us hold ourselves to an irrational standard, thinking we have to meet a certain standard of beauty or productivity or energy--because other people do. But those other people are not like us. They're not dealing with the same things that we have to deal with. And trying to keep up can be exhausting. There is a movie now showing at the local Independent theater, inside the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, called "Tyrel." I watched it today as a break from the bill paying vortex that I'm currently in, it being so early in the month. The movie is a wonderfully modern commentary on racist attitudes in this country, but mostly about misunderstandings, which I maintain are the REAL "root of all evil." If we actually took the time to understand each other better, and sympathize with everything another person might be going through, the whole world would be different. It would be better. I couldn't help but put myself and other into the place of the "sore thumb" in this movie. How many times have any of us been in his shoes? Having to deal with a society and a world that is not built for us? This movie even took place out in a rural setting, and I've already talked about how difficult it is to find accessibility in THOSE places. Maybe it's not fair to compare myself to other minorities; we all basically have our own crosses to bear. But honestly, sometimes it is difficult to separate my struggle and those of other people with disabilities from theirs. We are judged by our appearances too. Because I use a walker, I have had to fight for 13 years against the preconception that if you are physically disabled you must also be mentally deficient. Everyone with a disability has. I assure you. Even if they can't vocalize it. Look at Stephen Hawking, the late, great, hero of astrophysics. His brain was absolutely pristine with knowledge and information. His conception of the universe rivaled the great minds of history! And yet because he was in a wheelchair and used a "talking machine", I am sure there were problems for him in a misunderstanding world. I'm almost sure they were unintended. Everyone WANTS to include everyone. But in my own experience, I've seen that they just have not the faintest clue how to start. Which is actually why I adore hanging out at the UICA:) It's barrier-free, allowing me and the other wheel-dependent to run from floor to floor with almost no disruption. And there's an elevator for the inaccessible floors! Plus they regularly screen movies like "Tyrel," based on real-life misunderstanding and misinformation, that would heal the world, if we'd just open our minds to the possibility that we are not the only ones suffering. I'm not you and you're not me, and that's okay, right?