What to do when you meet a gimp.
Since I’m a member of the “disabled community” I have special privileges to talk candidly on this topic. Candidly talk is what I plan to do.
First up, we all don’t know one another.
Last summer, for example, we were Chicago for an art festival when someone asked me… “Oh you live in Orlando, do you know Bob Smith, he lives in FL and he’s blind too?’ At that point what I really wanted to say was… “maybe, what does he LOOK like?” But I didn’t. I’m not sure why people think I must know every disabled person in a three thousand mile radius but this type of comment is not that uncommon.
So what’s really going on there? I think it’s just part of human nature to want to connect and sometimes we’re a wee bit clumsy. Maybe it’s been so instilled in us to believe that talking about, hell, even notice, a persons differences is taboo. That’s nuts. Little kids left to be themselves will notice all sorts of things. That’s because they are curious.
Curiosity is normal, natural and healthy. Maybe we can (re)learn something from our children? What’s wrong with noticing a dudes wheelchair or my white cane? I think…I think, if we were not so uptight we could move very quickly from the chair and the cane, to other things that are interesting to talk about.
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Mark | Apr 13, 2008 | Reply
As idiotic as this man at the festival was being, his intent, I believe, doesn’t highlight the idea that, as a disabled person, you must know all other disabled people. Instead, I think his question gets at, and reinforces, the notion that we all, in some way, think of the world as a very small place. It’s what “six degrees of separation” is all about.
Rachel | Apr 14, 2008 | Reply
You make a good point Mark. I don’t think the dude is idiotic for reasons you just pointed out. The man in Chicago is just making some sort of association. If we are using the “six degrees of separation” idea, it wouldn’t be too unlikely, for me to know or get to know Bob Smith, the blind guy in FL.
Beth LaMie | Apr 17, 2008 | Reply
And if he sounded like a really cool dude, you might even want to look him up, so to speak.
I appreciate that you are giving everyone your perspective on stuff like this cuz we often don’t know what to say.
Beth