Stories

Hello! My day started with more of a jolt than I would have liked today, because I effortlessly slept through my blaring phone alarm (or I turned it off without waking up), and had to leap (slowly, with reluctance) out of bed to make myself semi-presentable for an art event happening in almost no time at all! Somehow, I made it, and I looked impressively presentable:) I met the incoming curator/director, got to look at several mind-expanding art exhibits centered around a central, yet divisive theme in our culture, and reflect once again on how that theme sounds more and more familiar to my own experience as a disabled person in America today. We're all marginalized too, though opinions still differ on exactly who receives the worst of it--and honestly I can't really maintain the position that mine suffers more. Yes, there are inconveniences, but in fairness to them, a lot of the disabled community used to just stay shut up indoors, rather than face those inconveniences and the embarrassment of having to deal with them. For example public bathrooms. I can't even begin to imagine what it used to be like for somebody wheelchair-bound, even as late as the 1970s, to try to partake of public facilities before the ADA regulations really took hold. To say nothing of what it must have been like to try to use the bathrooms even in office buildings back then! Sure, no problem to make a wider desk chair or wider door frames, but bathroom stalls?! That would have been an entirely different nightmare--I mean matter. So I can just imagine what a low priority public places and office buildings put on accessibility back before many different kinds of people starting venturing out of their homes to use them. And now they're playing catch-up pretty well, even if some people are still left out or inconvenienced. Public places are trying. Unlike certain races, who are often quietly excluded without any reason! At least those of us who used to be excluded are now slowly being included. I wish the same turn-around could be seen in the treatment of ALL minorities--even the homeless who must be soooo cold on the streets of this city. I guess it's a lot to ask of a society formerly built to include pretty much just one type of person and one type of ability to suddenly accommodate all types of people and all abilities. But the good news is there are visible signs that this is slowly happening. From that early morning profundity, I had more free time than I'd expected, and I easily navigated crumbling streets to another favorite haunt, New Hotel Mertens, for a late breakfast. Since I don't often get there during the day, when their side door is accessible to those who don't wish to climb the front stairs, I decided to take advantage this time, and just had to side step a ladder that had been closed up and lain on its side, right along the wall leading to the restaurant entrance:( But did I regret this inconvenience? Not really! I was happy--just this once--to put up with it in favor of all the chilled, no ice water I could drink, and a lovely salmon plate:) No bagel, just brown bread and all the usual stuff you put on top of a salmon bagel. Delicious, to a Swede in a French brasserie! Alas, I didn't get anything to wake me up while enjoying "brunch." So I made one more trip after, to a little local coffee shop across the street! They unfortunately have no ramps or accommodations for the disabled, but there's just one little step I can easily heave my walker over, and patrons are happy to open the door when they see me coming:) I almost fell asleep in one of their sagging velvet wingback chairs, drinking a shot of espresso and a glass of club soda (to cleanse the palette). Not to worry! that bracing air on my way home gave me a second wind:) I'll do my best to "pull and all day-er" as they say, and not mess up my sleep schedule this afternoon so that I oversleep tomorrow! When I got to the lobby I was greeted by a friendly lady I thought had moved! My day came full circle, when I told her where I'd been and she said her grandmother used to live there, and her mother worked there, when it was a hotel. Imagining what GR was like back then, and what life had been like for my neighbor growing up, and now knowing that my generation had re-vitalized a tiny piece of that history--absolutely made my day. Changes do come, however slowly. And we shouldn't rush them; it will only lead to frustration and disappointment. But meanwhile, there's still good in everyone, and a wonderful story to hear from each of them, if we take a moment to "love them back" and listen.