Both of my parents are handicapped. They each treat their disabilities differently. I found Helen Keller's attitude to resemble my mother. They are both, loving optimistic women who find beauty in the world they live in. My father on the other hand fills with anger at his own physical limitations on a daily basis. I find it remarkable how differently people react to being "disabled." I challenge you to think for a moment, how would you react to being "disabled"? with grace, with anger, as a knew oppertunity?
I think eventually I would come around to accepting my knew way of life, but I know that there would be a long period of anger and resentment in which I would have to grapple with my lack of control.
side note-
there is an artist (highly controversial at that) who went around asking blind people what they though the most beautiful thing they ever saw was? ....most blind people were not born that way.
There are ways in which people who are differently abled experience the world which differs from the abled body population. For example Helen Keller's understanding of personality through each persons fingers on hers....What am i missing out by not having that intimate connection which each person I meet. Think about it, what if every person I met I had to hold hands with to communicate. How personal! I also think of arguments or tense group meetings that I have had, in those situations I would have to be holding their hand while disagreeing with them...when now I am used to distancing myself and wanting to disengage.
My normal is very different from what it was; I'm still able-bodied, but I think more and more about sensory deprivation --probably because of vision loss in my left eye --I also have memory loss, that so far seems to be mild, but I imagine that as time goes on, these losses will increase, leaving me to re-discover the world, and make new connections, new neural pathways (please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_pathway for more about neural pathways) --intimate connections and exchanges are key --touching and being touched, participants in an interaction learning from interacting --this matters the most to me: exchanges! --opportunities to learn parts of existence as others have come to know it. Look here: http://www.lifepathunlimitednobleduo.com/?tag=new-neural-pathways, also and find a picture of neural pathways that have formed --"learning" helps a new brain to form --where would Helen Keller be without a new brain, as she "learned" a world? Imagine challenges of "learning"universes" and "cosmos" if relative sizes of things is important? How to make ideas of "universe" accessible so that sighted individuals don't seem to have most of the advantages?
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