Just Me

    Today is the last day of July and all I can say is GOOD FREAKING RIDDANCE!! Between bad things happening with the press, my business partner’s personal crisis still going on, and my brother passing away, it has not been a good month for me on a personal level. And, yes, of course I had some rejections with the writing, but I get those every month, so they didn’t ruin my month for me. Those three other things did.   It was the loss of my brother that drove me to writing even more than usual, but I also continued to read every day as well. Reading brings me comfort and a sense of peace. It is also a nice way for me to escape from the bad stuff in life, not to mention helping to take my mind off of things.   Some of the books I read this month were children’s books. In my defense, that box of books for kids was RIGHT THERE. I couldn’t just ignore them! So I grabbed a bunch that interested me and sat down to read them.   This is true except for one...

  Troy Colclasure in 1979 at age 13    This morning, I received the heartbreaking news that my older brother, Troy Colclasure, passed away the previous night. He died in the Desert Regeniol Hospital in Palm Springs, California, a little over three hours after being taken off of the ventilator that had kept him alive. His passing was peaceful and he had family with him.   One of my favorite memories of Troy was how he supported me in everything I liked to do. And when I told him one day that I was just somewhere by myself, singing (I was too shy to sing in front of people), he encouraged to sing for him.   Well, him and his friend, Chris. Those two were like brothers. They hung out constantly. We all loved Chris’ mom, too.   Troy with his buddy, Chris, and his wife, Jamie. They were friends for life. Well, Troy and Chris happened to discover that I had been singing in private, so Troy encouraged me to sing for him and Chris. So I did. I was in the ...

I read a poem yesterday that made me cringe. Even though it was celebrating all the things that our human body can do, the whole thing screamed, “Ableist.” Why? Because even as it was talking about parts of our bodies and their uses – eyes, legs, ears and hands – there was no acknowledgment of people whose eyes do not see, ears do not hear, and legs that don’t walk.   And by not including such individuals, it was as though this poem is not for them. But it should be, because it was talking about “everyone.” Except that it didn’t.   What made me feel worse about recognizing this in the poem was knowing who the author of the poem was: Me.   That’s right. Even though I was Deaf (I lost my hearing when I was 13), I wrote a poem about the human body WITHOUT acknowledging that for some people, ears do not hear and eyes do not see, etc. In other words, I had written an ableist poem. Me, a Deaf person, someone who has had to fight ableism for years, writing something ...