Feeling Strong?

Hello Lovelies! I've been sitting here reflecting on the concept of strength. Strength and weakness, more specifically, and what exactly seperates the two. I've heard it said that weakness MAKES you stronger, and if you ask me, this is entirely fact. Toward that end, I always used to point out to a former neighbor of mine that "women are stronger"--and he would get quiet. The way you do when you don't believe some one. My friends, he was a piece of work. The kind of person you associate with because of proximity and because you feel like you SHOULD--in your early 20s--but not the kind of person who sticks. But it has always given me a reason to gloat when I see a woman breaking a barrier in her career or completing a task that some man somewhere found "beneath him" or too distasteful to be bothered with. I.e; it scared him. Like those tee-shirts that say "if it had been 3 Wise Women..." and then list how they would have brought food, cleaned the stable for the recovering Mary after just giving birth to Jesus, and taken care of the animals. Though I'm paraphrasing:) So that begs the question, doesn't it? What does strength look like? And should there even be a different word for muscle strength than there is for strength of character and fortitude? Seems to me muscles do not always equal brains, and neither does the absense of muscles equal the absense of endurance. A lot of times the ability to endure hardship requires anything BUT muscle strength, and having the ability to lift or pull or transport heavy objects doesn't mean success for you in the long run. I've opened up a thought portal here that could certainly go many different places. What is strength? Who's strong? Are the Disabled stronger than the Able? Because after all, when it comes to endurance the Disabled have it. We have had to endure, endure, endure our whole lives. Even for those of us who are labeled not disabled enough (me without my walker; people make judgements), nothing is easy. Everything is a challenge. I lean into supports, like walls, car doors, chairs if they're there, and even people I expect to be "walker stand-ins" if I'm without. If the supports are not there when I expect them to be, I am likely to loose my balance and either fall hugely, or start falling and if I'm LUCKY catch myself or be caught before I become all arms and legs in a pile on the floor:( However, I and others like me have had to shrug/smile/laugh those embarrassments off so often for so long, at this point it's second nature. And I ask myself frequently why I feel it necessary to "make myself small" to make others more comfortable. Because frankly, my dears, I am very sick of it. The idea of inclusion of the Disabled and increased accessability is fairly new to THE COUNTRY--but not to me. And not to my friends. We've borne this cross since the game began, and it is getting exhausting. I'm not surprised at all anymore that people who use walkers are stooped and slow most of the time so society looks at them with pity. The walker MAKES you stoop; it gives you knee problems. It causes sciatic nerve pain. And my wrists are in a constant state of tension from being in a raised position to hold the handle bars. And yet this is the best society and physical therapy can do. So I put up with it. And countless others of us put up with the limations of mobility aides. Does that mean that we're weak--'cause we use them? Or are we strnger than everybody beause we endure their use? I'm not sure my endgame for this post; I've just had quite a lot on my mind these days. And in fact I live 99% in my head. So if I don't get out of my head and write things down once in a while I'll drive my own damn self insane:) In conclusion, when we think of strength, should we even see muscles--or should we see heart?