Various / Sundry, OTP!

[capri0mni]

1) Remember that vid I posted, of the guy who did a cover of "I don't want to live on the moon," from Sesame Street? He also composes his own work; he posted this, a couple of nights ago:

C) I made yet another post to Treasures of the Heart: Peace on Earth....

There's now one post up for each of the main, interrelated, topics I intended to focus on: a) the storytelling process, b) actual tales (especially versions people may not know already), and c) etymology, and deconstructing dictionary definitions. All I have to do is Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Hope I don't burn myself out in the first month, and then run out of things to say the rest of the year.

But that's why I started this thing (partly): to remind myself of all the different stories I do know, and to tell them before I forget, or lose the oportunity. And I shouldn't be surprised that December would be a story-heavy month -- the whole culture (at least in the northern hemisphere) is geared up to storytelling at this time of year.

II) Had a dream, last Saturday, and there was one scene that I am keeping hold of, for the next time I get hit with: "But do you ever walk in your dreams?"

No. This is what I dream about:

I had an appointment to get to. It was some sort of officially mandated thing -- psych. eval., or something. Only the medical center, wherever, looked like a posh restaurant/nightclub, and I had to drive my wheelchair up a long, circling, ramp that went aound the lobby (where patrons are enjoying cocktails), up to the office my meeting was in, on a second floor level.

Everything looks fine and dandy, until I'm half way up the ramp. Then it stops, in a sheer drop, about half-way up. There's a gap of about five or six feet, and then, a flight of steps leading to the second half. And while I'm stuck there, thinking: "WTF?" the medical center's receptionist comes down to berate me, telling me to hurry up, or I'll be penalized for being late to the meeting. I try to explain that I'm doing my best, but I can't get across. And she snaps back: "Well, what more do you want? We provided you with a ramp!"

Gotta hand it my amygdala: it sure knows how to bring the figurative snark to the party.

b) Saw a nifty documentary on PBS the other night, on the latest generation of scientists and artists working in oragami. And the idea occurred to me that someone could probably make a full-sized artificial Christmas/Yule tree using nothing but the pages of all the catalogs that come in the mail between October and December. At wouldn't that be the perfect Meta-cultural statement, FTW?

Comments

[panrubius]

There really does seem to be this opinion among some able-bodied types that providing a wheelchair ramp solves any and all problems we wheelchair users might have. Because obviously, you were supposed to get up some speed and jump over the gap, fly across the stairs and into the meeting, stopping in a long skid that leaves you behind the table ready to do the meeting!

I know that's what I usually do in my wheelchair.

That passive thoughtlessness really does get on my nerves sometimes.

Nice to meets you by the way :-)

[capri0mni]

Actually, in the dream, I was expected to flag down one of the able-bodied men drinking cocktails, and ask him to lift me out of the chair, and carry me across, and up the stairs (which also seems to be an assumption of certain able-bodied types: Sure, this event will be barrier-free! We'll have someone available to carry you). So then, I had to figure out the best way to hold on to him so that a) I would be safe, b) he could carry me safely without breaking his back (while slightly drunk), and c) neither of us were exposed to "inappropriate touching."

Then, when I finally got across, the meeting turns out to be a support group type thing, that was also a New Orleans-style jazz party-- Only there were Vodoun demons threatening to break loose, and end the world, and there was a Chinese type Tiger/Dragon running about dispensing oracles of wisdom in the form of riddles...

I should have just called ahead and cancelled the appointment. ;-)

Oh, and nice to meet you, too.

[panrubius]

Oh my god, we will have a couple of stout young men available to carry you. Oh my god oh my god oh my God. That drives me absolutely insane. I think I would like to use the front door like everybody else please and not have everybody in the lobby area staring at me, as I get borne through the front doors by a couple of sweating teenagers, who are utterly terrified of dropping me!

he could carry me safely without breaking his back (while slightly drunk)
This is something that you really have to watch out for, because those same two stout young gentleman who helped you through the door at the start of the event were sober, it's not the end of the event and getting outside takes on a whole new, albeit exciting, tone.

I am in awe that you actually managed to get across the gap, seriously, how did you manage it?

[capri0mni]

I am in awe that you actually managed to get across the gap, seriously, how did you manage it?

It's very simple, really: REM-sleep logic is not like normal Earth logic. The important bit was that I get to the meeting/party, so that I could face the terror of invading demons. So the nit-picking question of "How?" was just skipped over.

That's why dreams can provide the initial spark for a story idea (As one did for Mary Shelly, with Frankenstein), but you can't just transcribe every detail you remember. The author needs to be awake and critical for it to work.

[panrubius]

Oh I see, I think I'm starting to romp towards an understanding here. We've only just met and you're going to think I'm a complete idiot, I thought that this situation arose in real life and not just in a dream. That's what happens when I don't read things properly.

I was beginning to think you were some sort of supreme being with colossal forearms that could lift yourself over great gaps in wheelchair ramps.

*hangs head in shame*

[capri0mni]

Heh. I've seen some poorly designed ramps in the waking world, but not quite that bad. Thank goodness. Still, just as annoying, though.

And it might have helped if you'd known more background; in the introduction to this dream scene, I was making an indirect reference to this post that I did for Blogging Against Disablism Day, back at the start of May.

[panrubius]

I just read that post you linked me to and I was nodding all the way through it. I have a spinal cord injury (Spina bifida) which puts me in a chair, and those questions come thick and fast when you're out amongst the able-bodied.

I have a slightly different take on things as I was able to walk until the age of about 25 when my spine degenerated to a point where I couldn't walk any more. I had all of these preconceptions About disabled people who were in wheelchairs which I didn't really think about (because I had no need to) until I was put in a wheelchair, I suddenly found out that pretty much everything I thought about wheelchair users, and what it was like to be in a wheelchair, was wrong!

I'll be here all night if I detail everything I agreed with in your post so I'll just make do with saying, I agree with you are pretty much everything had to say about being disabled and the way we are treated and viewed by the world.

[capri0mni]

I had all of these preconceptions About disabled people who were in wheelchairs which I didn't really think about (because I had no need to) until I was put in a wheelchair.

Hm. did any of those preconceptions came from the doctors and therapists you worked with, who, maybe, egged you on to do your exercises, or go through surgery, so you wouldn't "end up" in a wheelchair "too soon?"

So often, it's the doctors and therapists who have the most negative view of wheelchairs, because they see it as the visible symbol of their own failing. This, of course, sucks eggs if you happen to be a kid with a disability, and the most important decisions about your life are being made by those same doctors...

Me? Bitter? Nah... (not really)

I'm glad that what I wrote struck a chord.

[panrubius]

No, because I didn't know my spine would degenerate and didn't have much input from doctors and physiotherapists, with regards to my spina bifida that is. I agree with you that some of the worst views about the disabled I've come across have been from doctors, especially those silly silly surgeons (having said that, I think I prefer the driven, workaholic, self-centred, God-complex-rocking surgeons to the ones with a good bedside manner).

I think it was living in the able-bodied world, immersion in mass media and existing in the world generally, that formed my preconceptions. I was that passive thoughtless person that we see every day walking past in the street!

*gets down off soapbox*

[capri0mni]

Ah. Well, that goes right to my point about no two disabilities are the same, even when they both involve using wheelchairs. I think I was diagnosed with CP at around age 1, and started regular physical therapy at age 2, which continued throughout my childhood, which, I'm sure, had a profound impact on my self-image.

Luckily, I had a mother who lived to challenge authority, so she taught me to question the attitudes of the doctors and specialists... Not necessarily reject what they said out of hand, but at least to question them, and not take their authority at face value.

[jesse_the_k]

1. That guitarist was awesome! Thanks.

2. Inaccessibility dreams. Oh how they suck. Because they're not even nightmares, really, just banal recycling of the banal crap we have to banally deal with everyday without throttling total strangers and inserting plastic explosive in the doorways.

[capri0mni]

1) I think so, too. I came across the vid at a moment when I was feeling down, and it cheered me up. If you go to his channel, I also like his piece titled "luke warm tea."

2) Yeah I know. But one good thing inaccessibility dreams do is remind us that the massive Stupid-and-fail is with the world, not with us (and, occasionally, we get to actually insert plastic explosive in the doorways). But I still prefer my anxiety dreams to be more metaphorical -- like battling fire-breathing dragons, or hunting ghosts in old Mayan temples. At least those are adventurous romps.