Just Me

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 ...

  Last night, I spent some time reading one of the many books I am reading for this month. One of those books is Don’t Give Up, Don’t Give In by Louis Zamperini. I finished reading this book today. It’s a really good book and very inspirational. So inspirational, in fact, that also last night, I tweeted a few good quotes from the pages I was reading.   I first became familiar with Louis Zamperini when I read the book, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. (I also saw the movie, after reading the book.) Louis’ story of how he survived in a POW camp in Japan is amazing and I was greatly inspired by his story. So of course, I was excited to read this book when I came across it. (I have not read his other book, The Devil at My Heels , but I plan to.) It’s an excellent book and I highly recommend it. And although Louis used his transformation to Christianity in his speaking engagements as a subject during his many talks, you really don’t need to be a Christian to appreciate the messa...