I have a 10:00 o’clock pear. Every day, at 10, a pear. I love pears, they are my favourite fruit, and no, I don’t get tired of having a pear, every day, at 10. I look forward to 10 o’clock. I wait right until 10 o’clock. Not 9:45 or even 9:55, it’s called the 10 […]
Then there’s that moment when Joe and I are chatting with a fellow wheelchair user. We are approached by someone we all know simply as a ‘nodding’ acquaintance and he says hello to Joe, who is standing in the center of our little group, as if we two wheelchair users don’t exist. But maybe it […]
Joe and Ruby on state at the Canadian Opera Company’s performance of the Magic Flute at the Four Seasons Centre.Joe is wearing a long sleeved light brown shirt and Ruby is wearing her little black dress with a simple string of pearls.Joe has his arm around Ruby. A couple of months ago I was notified […]
I was congratulated and acknowledged and outright praised yesterday. Guess what for? Holding open a door so that Joe could get in with the grocery trolley. It’s a simple thing to do, I pull the door open, move to the side while holding it open, then when Joe passes through, I back through the door […]
Yesterday I set out to break my distance pushing record of 1.3 kilometres. I hoped to double that record but wasn’t sure that I’d be able to. This comprises two laps of a very large mall. I set out pushing myself a little harder than I should have as I burned up a lot of […]
I’ve been doing some research on the social experiences of people with disabilities in “community living.” Now I haven’t narrowed my research at this point, as I will soon, to people with intellectual disabilities, so I’ve just been browsing around reading, often upsetting material. One that I’m reading right now discussed ‘situational vulnerability’ for people […]
“Say it,” I said. I knew I was being forceful, but she just wouldn’t say it. I wanted her to say it and the tone in my voice made that clear. I’m doing this more often, and I may have written about this before, but I’m liking this new strategy, new kind of reasonable stridency […]
“Yes, I know.” “Yes, I’m sorry.” “Of course, you are right, I can’t understand.” A few months ago I was in conflict with a woman who was the mother of a child with an intellectual disability. She and I had been in discussion about the sharing, or in my opinion, the over-sharing, of the private […]
It may seem a small and petty thing. Even knowing that it probably is small and petty, however, doesn’t make the feeling go away. We were leaving the movie theatre and when we went to the elevator it was broken down. No panic, we know they have service elevators in the back as this has […]
To those I have ever dined with, to those I will some day dine with: I don’t care what you eat. Joe and I are vegetarians. We don’t discuss this fact with people unless they ask and we are always careful with out answers. But, for the purposes of writing this, I need to be […]
