I have cerebral palsy quadriplegia. Which means that, while I can feel my arms and legs, I cannot use them. Hence the motorized wheelchair in the picture attached to this article. If you just felt sorry for me, thank you for your compassion, but my personal life is wonderful. I have a great family, wonderful opportunities, and a deep faith, a more biographical sketch can be found in an earlier edition of the Minds We Meet column.
I truly believe that sometimes the best teachers don’t come from books and the classroom but from family. In my case this is my dad’s cousin, who my sister and I affectionately call Aunt Margaret. When we were talking recently, she said something that finally cleared up a stumbling block in my perspective. We were… Read more »
I truly believe that sometimes the best teachers don’t come from books and the classroom but from family. In my case this is my dad’s cousin who my sister and I affectionately call Aunt Margaret. When we were talking recently, she said something that finally cleared up a stumbling block in my perspective. We were… Read more »
I would like to begin by saying thank you to one of my colleagues in this magazine. Marie Wells, who is always speaking in the positive. The topics range from unconditional love and different ways of seeing the term people pleasing to the importance of life in general and the benefits of discomfort. That being… Read more »
Sometimes you just have to say things simply. I feel everybody gets acknowledgement in feminist scholarship but those with disabilities. Further, I feel the response to the concerns I raised to the humanities department about some of their courses, although there was some progress, could be said to be hypocritical. This is because, notwithstanding revisions… Read more »
Sometimes you just have to say things simply. I feel everybody gets acknowledgement in feminist scholarship but those with disabilities. Further, I feel the response to my concerns, although there was some progress, could be said to be hypocritical. This is because, notwithstanding that revisions began because of my advocacy about this issue, I cannot… Read more »
My Dear Elisa; I am writing this letter to say I’m sorry for being so hard on us and creating a complex. That is, I’m sorry for all the mixed messages. For example, we have a voice but don’t say anything that could get us rejected! Or, we have loving parents and family as long… Read more »
Okay, so in my last work, I wrote of the cross and the resurrection with the word “symbols”. I’m probably overthinking, as usual, but I’m kicking myself in the butt. No, I am not scared I will be excommunicated. I’m kicking myself in the butt because to say symbol does not respect that I see… Read more »
I write this flabbergasted. Once again my feminist course, this time contemporary theory, shows disability to be something that one tries to avoid or escape, etc.. This time using how a woman who wanted to commit assisted suicide wasn’t facing discrimination because she wasn’t allowed to have someone help her practice individual autonomy with life… Read more »
I have a confession to make. Chronologically I am 27 but emotionally I act like I am, at most, 12. It is not because of developmental differences. Or, my favourite rationalization for the past year and a half, the effect of invisibility syndrome. I have to take responsibility here. I am 28 years old in… Read more »
“Holy Spirit, help me. Amen” The above prayer is usually something I keep in secret when I write these pieces. To keep things more secure is usually the argument—usually. But it’s time to step out of the usual in several ways. First, if I want to be comfortable with who I am, I have to… Read more »