The Rising Tide

Very Late Evening, Lovelies! Unfortunately the sun pouring through the windows today has worn me out almost as much as walking around the tiny little rural town of Douglas, MI, with a good friend, so this post won't be extremely long:( Just wanted to mention that the buildings in larger cities have given me such a good feeling about the progress the ADA standards have made! Poor little Douglas has some cute, quaint shops and plenty of equally impressive restaurants with very friendly people. But absolutely nothing is very well conceived for accessibility. And it's a shame because the town is so charming! Not to mention beautiful, with rolling fields and vineyards, and "U-Pick" orchards for raspberries and other fruits--you don't stop loving those things if you've suddenly become disabled. And if you've ALWAYS been disabled, imagine if you never knew the pure joy of eating a berry you just picked from the bush? Most of those orchards had accompanying little stands selling ready-picked cartons of the fruit they grow, which would certainly suffice. But I didn't notice the price--what if it's significantly higher than if you went out and picked to your heart's content yourself? One would imagine it would be--and then what? The guy whose physical difficulties make it impossible to navigate winding rows of blueberry bushes has to pay more for the same thing everyone else is getting, because of something he (or she) can't help. Sheesh country businesses...discriminate much? For anyone reading this who might not be familiar with this phraseology; I mean it harkens back to my post of LAST summer, reflecting on how difficult the natural places are for physically challenged people to get to on their own. "We can't have nice things." I'm sure at this point this is just a pet peeve of mine; there are ways the Disabled can still ENJOY nature, even if the elements make it difficult for someone with physical challenges to experience it. For example, I've started playing videos of recorded rain and falling showers to simulate the experience of walking in a downpour, though I pretty much refuse to, because water and a metal walker don't mix--I need it to last a while longer before my insurance will pay for a new one! And I still manage to get around, goodness knows. Today's road trip to the country was a great example of somebody going out of her way to include me--lugging my walker along, loading and unloading it in her car every time we went somewhere. And that's the way natural spaces should strive to be--going out of THEIR way to include people with much more noticeable physical challenges than I! There is a beach in Connecticut providing a fleet of big-wheeled "beach wheelchairs" that glide more easily through the sand. But is it enough? There are 49 other states and hundreds of parks within them that could stand to allow us access.