After eleven years working with people with disabilities, I had learned two things: 1. people with disabilities are not to be pitied. 2. Everybody has disabilities. My disabilities include: 1. A maddening inability to find my way out of a paper bag. I can live in a city my entire life, and still get lost. 2. An equally maddening inability to tell one human being from another, and I aint talkin' about black people, or Mexicans, or Asians. I'm talking about homo sapiens, en toto. If I'm working the cash register, and you come up and buy something, then come back five minutes later and buy something else, as far as I'm concerned, I dealt with two different people. I have a definite problem with facial recognition, and my short term memory is nearly extinct. Long term, my memory is great. I can remember who was in my first grade class fifty years ago, and what they said to me - but don't ask what I did less than five minutes ago.
Hell, I haven't even scratched the surface of my disabilities, and I'm not ashamed to list 'em all. After all, we all have them. All my life I've been highly regarded for supposedly being highly intelligent. When I think about my mental disabilities, the ones my admirers don't see, it makes me want to laugh...or cry. Suddenly I don't seem so much like the intellectual juggernaut some people seem to think I am, and want me to be. To me I start to seem pretty damned limited. To me I start to seem pretty damned small. There was a time when I could name the winner of every world series game ever played. That time is gone.
The competitive arrogant culture we have in America makes it difficult for us to acknowledge our disabilities, to own up to our perceived weaknesses. But now I can tell you this, straight up: a disability needn't be a weakness. a disability can actually become a strength. Stay tuned to find out how...
No comments:
Post a Comment