Apparently, questioning my use of a cane has become a go-to topic of conversation when I’m riding the elevator in my building. You’ll remember that it happened a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday, when I got home from vacation, an…
Read MoreThis afternoon, my husband and I went to see a matinee in town. We went to a particular theatre to see it because they have assistive listening devices for all of the movies there. These devices are glasses that provide…
Read MoreI found out this spring, after a series of muscle spasms that left me crying on the floor, that I have a pulled ligament between my spine and my hip. I probably pulled it long ago; my physical therapist said…
Read MoreI have learned that the cruelty of others is never about me. It is always about the people being cruel. I do not have to worry that I caused it. I do not have to consider it a commentary on…
Read MoreI am finding it more and more difficult to use words like “accessibility” and “inclusion” these days. Much of the problem with these words is that they assume an inside and an outside. If you’re “accessible,” to whom are you…
Read MoreI’ve been giving some thought to the work “broken†as applied to the human body. For years, I’ve reacted against the word. I’ve seen it as an implied comparison with “normal,†as a judgment, and as a form of devaluation.…
Read MoreFor the past 11 years, I have been shunned. Not socially rejected. Shunned. By what used to be my synagogue community. For falling in love with my partner. For my partner falling in love with me. He was serving as…
Read MoreYesterday was National Coming Out Day. I officially came out as bisexual, and it was a celebration. No angst. No fear. No second thoughts. Just a celebration. It was a such a contrast with coming out as disabled at the…
Read More[Trigger warnings for sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, shunning, shame.] Shame is not something that most of us want to hear about. Many of us will listen to stories of any other kind of horror: sexual abuse, physical assault,…
Read MoreI have been feeling a lot of sadness these days. It’s almost a sad kind of wonder. I look back over my life from my perch here in my 50s, and I think about how differently my life has turned…
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