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I have just been called Inspirational. By another disabled person.
Now, I can cope with newly disableds thinking I'm an inspiration. That's fine: "Hi, Welcome to Crippledom. Don't panic, watching daytime TV is *not* obligatory." That's OK. We all need someone to give us the acclimatisation speech and indicate the emergency exits at some point.
This disabled person I have recently Inspired isn't a newbie. She isn't a lifer either, but definitely an old-timer...
And I honestly - honestly! - didn't do anything remotely inspirational. She herself has a job, runs her own business, is active in her local community, has a fabulous social life...
... I'm not sure what I have inspired her to do. We shared a lager. Maybe she is going to drink more.
Now, I can cope with newly disableds thinking I'm an inspiration. That's fine: "Hi, Welcome to Crippledom. Don't panic, watching daytime TV is *not* obligatory." That's OK. We all need someone to give us the acclimatisation speech and indicate the emergency exits at some point.
This disabled person I have recently Inspired isn't a newbie. She isn't a lifer either, but definitely an old-timer...
And I honestly - honestly! - didn't do anything remotely inspirational. She herself has a job, runs her own business, is active in her local community, has a fabulous social life...
... I'm not sure what I have inspired her to do. We shared a lager. Maybe she is going to drink more.
posted by Katie at 12:43 pm
4 Comments:
Ah ha! But you may have capacities for inspiring others which go far beyond how you cope with your crippledom. I say, just because you're disabled, doesn't mean you can't be inspirational in your own right.
Also, where are the emergency exits? Nobody pointed them out to me.
Good point there that goldfish has made ... perhaps it was nothing to do with your disathingamyness that inspired her.
Perhaps it was your dress sense? Or your mastery of cribbage? Or, as you were sharing a lager, maybe it was your technique for avoiding backwash that floated her boat?
Stray, CPers cannot avoid backwash. Fact.
Maybe I'm paranoid, but I'm fairly sure the disability and inspiration were linked.
Maybe it was the shock of it. It was a work thing. We'd been talking and arranging to meet for some time, and neither of us realised the other was disabled until we set eyes on each other.
And that NEVER happens... Like the other day, I phoned someone in a professional capacity, and I was so very sure they were a spacker too - it's a speech thing - I very nearly asked, and then I got scared because my boss would not have been impressed if I'd been wrong and messed everything up...
Yeah, I think it was the shock.
Just go with it Katie. It happened to me once and I'm still trying to work out what I did. However it seems you did soemthing.
Inspiration can come in many different forms. It doesn't have to be overt.
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