Joe and I are members of a ‘walking club’ at the mall. Our mall has two levels, and it’s 1.4k to do the top and .6k to do the bottom. We joined in July of last year and have tried to get over and do the circuit a few times a month. We stopped by the customer service desk to find out what our totals were for last year. It was interesting as she went through the data, you could tell which months we traveled and which months we didn’t. We were having a delightful chat with the woman at the desk when a young fellow came from outside and up to the desk to ask a quick question.
As he approached, he turned to me, and said, “You don’t need to be in that wheelchair,” he then shook his head and said, “you are just willing yourself to be disabled.” He said it with a combination of hostility and disgust. The three women at the desk were flabbergasted. After he left I told them that this kind of thing happens every day, every time I go out in public. They were horrified.
We went back to discussing how far we’d gone. I’d done 22 kilometers and Joe 18. I know that’s not a lot but there were months we traveled so much we’d only done one or two walks at the mall. But here’s the thing, it isn’t nothing and that’s what matters. So when we were done Joe and I prepared to leave.
The woman said, “I’m sorry that happened to you.”
And I swear on The Joy of Cooking I’d completely forgotten about it. It’s such a commonplace experience, that I’d let it go. It wasn’t even the first time that day that someone had done something to indicated that I was neither welcome or wanted in the mall. I looked at the others at the desk and they too were still horrified.
It was a good reminder.
What we get used to, what we end up putting up with, is unacceptable. It is NOT the cost of living in the community. It is NOT the natural state of being disabled, being different.
Loss of outrage is a dangerous thing.
A dangerous thing.
