stevekuusisto

My Bad

Okay. My friend Sam Hamill did have a birthday. He is the poet who has done more to organize resistance to war than any other literary figure of our time. He’s also not 75 as I reported yesterday. He is in fact 56 if you’re dyslexic. If you’re not, he’s 65. Got it? As I said to Sam last night, this is why I’m a blogger and not a journalist.

Here are some other facts that have been central to my thinking that I have discovered are faulty:

1. Judge Bork was not named after the sound that is produced by flatulence in the bathtub.

2. They play big league baseball in Brooklyn.

3. Book reading makes you skinny.

4. The reindeer in Lapland are fond of eating psychedelic mushrooms. This is why they can fly.

One out of four isn’t bad?

S.K.

Happy Birthday Sam Hamill

I suppose if I stop and think about it I am the kind of person they like to call a "public intellectual" which means that people who don’t make their living in the academy have had the opportunity perhaps far too frequently to eat rubber chicken and listen to me. I’ve spoken to Rotary Clubs; Lion’s Clubs; the Masonic Temple of Manhattan; a Texas Association of Ophthalmologists; bankers; lawyers; civic planners; museum curators; engineers; radio executives; rehabilitation counselors; police groups; dog handlers; tourism experts; alumni associations of all kinds; I’ve spoken to jogging societies; church groups; politicians; taxi drivers; I’ve spoken to groups that are concerned with the art of public speaking; I’ve even spoken to a group of Austrian Dadaists who were assembled in a cave inside a mountain in the middle of the city of Graz.

For the most part I don’t really like the word "intellectual" as a marker of identity. I remember when ex-Beatle John Lennon snarled to a Rolling Stone interviewer that he was too intellectual "even though I’m not really an intellectual." I was 16 at the time Lennon said that, but I knew that I didn’t want to be part of a revolution that excluded dancing. (And yes, I’d also heard that quip from Emma Goldman around that time…)

Still I think more and more of the price that we all pay in our contemporary and largely anti-intellectual culture if we don’t declare ourselves to be critically engaged with the honorable traditions of the Enlightenment. In turn I believe that this means that here in America we must fight ardently for freedom in all its forms: social and economic freedom, freedom of expression, and yes, the freedom we call human rights.

I believe that we are losing the war in Iraq because we are largely perceived as a nation that is not fighting for freedom either domestically or internationally.

I’m not the first person to say this and I won’t be the last. But I’m wagering that not one of the 11 GOP representatives who met privately with President Bush raised this essential point. We are losing because of Guantanamo Bay and because of the prison scandals inside Iraq. We are losing because we aren’t fighting for freedom. We can’t even seem to deliver it here at home. This is the most bitter pill of all: we are not fighting from a position of virtue as we did in the second world war. History shows that nations that do not fight to protect human rights always lose.

Yesterday was the 75th birthday of my friend, the poet Sam Hamill who among other things has been one of the most ardent protestors of America’s military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. Sam’s been involved with Poets Against War and he continues to travel widely and speak out about the injustices that are being committed in our nation’s good name.

Thank you Sam. Peace!

S.K.

The Old Mean Girl Theory

By now you’ve seen it: George W. Bush remarked yesterday at the White House that Queen Elizabeth II "helped us celebrate our nation’s bi-centennial in 17….1976." WINK. The Queen was not amused. She shot "W" a withering look. The Prez in turn made a joke about how the Queen looked like a disapproving mother.

And that’s W’s whole problem. I realized this morning that he’s been pushed around by his mother all his life. And everybody knows that Barbara Bush is a mean girl all grown up.

A grown up mean girl differs from a teen M.G.in two important ways: 1. She’s outlived her daddy and probably she’s outlasted her tough old mommy too. So she’s not arguing anymore about how to raise the kids. And 2: An "old mean girl" believes that Ozzie Osborne’s practice of biting the heads off of live birds is merely amateur behavior. Back home and in secret the Queen regularly bites the heads off of her kitchen staff and you can look it up.

When she was First Lady Barbara Bush tried to cover up how mean she was by making her dog write a book. That’s of course a famous "mean girl" trick: "I’ll be your friend if you do my homework and I’ll even let you stand next to my next best friend at the prom."

Poor President Bush. People have speculated that his impoverished speaking style and his apparent inability to grasp details may have something to do with a secret learning disability. But it’s now clear that he’s an "adult child of an old mean girl"–a largely unexamined condition but one which most likely affects millions of conservative men. I’ll bet Trent Lott has a mean old Mama. Can you even begin to imagine Dick Cheney’s mother?

It’s no wonder that George W. Bush stumbled during his introduction what with that archetypal mean old girl looking him up and down. He thought for a moment that he was back home in Kennebunkport watching Barbara Bush bite the head off a songbird.

S.K.

52 Marathons in 52 Weeks to Fight Leukemia

Two years ago now Steve and I were each struggling with knee injuries while training for a "Train to End Stroke" marathon. Thanks to many of you, we managed to raise a total of ten thousand dollars and although disappointed to not be able to run 26.2 miles because of complaining knees, we did each run and complete the Kona, Hawaii half marathon.

That’s how we met Karl Gruber. He sold us sneakers. Several pairs as I recall. Karl is an expert when it comes to sneakers, and for good reason. Having run 52 marathons in 52 weeks to raise funds and awareness to fight Leukemia, he’s probably spent a small fortune on his own sneakers.

We’re pleased to inform you that Karl has written a book about his experience called "Running For Their Lives"

"The text tells the story of Gruber, a marathon runner from Hide-A-Way
Hills, Ohio, who left his home and job to travel across North America
and participated in fifty-two grueling marathons within fifty-two
weeks. Calling the tour a “Super Run for the Cure”, Gruber did it all
to raise money and awareness regarding leukemia research. From TV to
radio and print media interviews, Gruber worked tirelessly and
religiously to inspire as many people as he could in one of the most
amazing displays of heroism by an athlete."

Congratulations Karl. We’re proud to say we know ya. What? You say your first book signing is on Sunday, May 13 from Noon to 5 PM at FrontRunner" (1344 W. Lane Ave., Columbus, OH)? OK. See you then!

Connie and Steve

UPDATE 5/11/2007: Karl has informed us his book signing has been postponed. Hopefully he will keep us informed.

The History of My Shoes: Field Work with Body and Soul

Book Review
By Stephen Kuusisto

The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin’s Theory
By Kenny Fries
Carroll and Graf

Kenny Fries has ghosts on his shoulders and ghosts in his shoes. It is precisely because of this that the narrator of this important book is a shaman of culture and history. Kenny Fries is speaking for all of us, even if we don’t know it yet. Readers may initially think this is a disability memoir but it is really a post-Victorian narrative about Darwin’s strange legacy in our world of real bodies.

Arriving at the tuff of the Galapagos Islands Fries sees the graffiti carved into the hillside by two centuries of mariners. And he reads the names for us. We are in the company of travelers who have followed the course of Charles Darwin’s famous voyage and whose only writing remains as stark and meaningless as uncatalogued bones.

Enter poetry. Lyric poetry. Subjective experience. The story of a singular body.

Fries walks with damaged legs and wears custom made orthopedic shoes as he follows the path of Darwin’s literal and figurative voyage—and like Darwin he travels because customary ideas are in need of re-examination.

A friend of mine in my undergraduate days at Hobart College once observed that “there’s the real Darwin and then there are the Sears & Roebuck Darwins…” The latter are of course the purveyors of faulty social ideas and certainly people with disabilities have been the sad inheritors of same. The late Victorian obsession with eugenics comes to mind.

The History of My Shoes is a poet’s eye look at Darwin’s world of ideas and it is simultaneously a book about inhabiting a body that requires hourly adaptations both of mind and of physical practice. This is a narrative that works against method as Darwin once worked against method and the rewards are manifested on page after page. This is a groundbreaking book for those who are interested in the history of ideas and the corresponding history of the human body.

"Reasonable People": On Poetry and the Politics of Breathing

Book Review:
by Stephen Kuusisto

Reasonable People: a Memoir of Autism & Adoption
By Ralph James Savarese
The Other Press

“My name is DJ and I am taking a trip of a lifetime.”

The line above appears in the journal of DJ Savarese who is the co-author of the memoir Reasonable People which has just been published by The Other Press. The sub-title of the book is as important to culture as the title itself: “On the meaning of family and the politics of neurological difference”. This timely book is about the Horatian life, “Life” written with a capital “L”. Accordingly it is about family and the life of the mind; about poetry and the fierce resistance to stereotypes of people with autism.

Assuredly one can think of dozens of additional sub-titles for the book: Living Outside their Boxes; Unraveling the Outworn Tapestry of Academic Autism; A Prayer Wheel by Two Poets; or The Road of Salt and Honey.

This is a memoir about “hard traveling” as Woody Guthrie would say, and yet it is far more than a narrative of trouble and triumph. The poet, Ralph James Savarese, skillfully tells the story of his adoptive son DJ’s former life of physical and intellectual abuse and in turn and almost seamlessly tells the story of how he and his wife Emily must grow both intellectually and emotionally and yes, politically, since DJ’s autism is the kind of disability our culture has misunderstood throughout history.

Continue reading “"Reasonable People": On Poetry and the Politics of Breathing”

New Book "Reasonable People" reviewed in Newsweek!

In a post I wrote back in January called Calling All Book Loving Bloggers, I mentioned a book due out this spring called Reasonable People, a Memoir of Autism & Adoption by Ralph James Savarese. Well, not only is it now available, it’s been reviewed in NEWSWEEK Magazine! Congratulations Ralph!!!

Steve I know felt honored when asked to write a blurb about it for the book’s dust jacket. Here is what he said:

"Reasonable People is the story of a homemade disability rights movement, one that defies many contemporary institutional and social service expectations about autistic children. This is also a book with a historian’s care for facts and a poet’s concern with emotional candor. It belongs on the shelf with the best work in disability history and memoir."

I’m hoping Steve will find time soon to write more for us…

Here is what Morton Ann Gernsbacher, Ph.D. had to say about it:

"Articulate and passionate, Savarese’s intricately crafted memoir of his son’s early years challenges all of us to embrace diversity, to triumph over adversity, and to become not just reasonable people – but a reasonable society."

Here are a few blogs discussing it as well:

Autism Vox;
The Joy of Autism
Autism Society of North Carolina Bookstore

Again – Congratulations to Ralph. And to DJ, Ralph’s son. DJ contributed his own chapter called "It’s My Story!" DJ, thanks for sharing….

~ Connie

Mental Health America of Franklin County, OH

I discovered this fundraising event while reading the local newspaper this morning.

The Mental Health America of Franklin County is "dedicated to promoting mental health in Franklin County through advocacy, education and support services." On their web site there are all kinds of links offering information, resources and support, both local and national.

They are currently hosting an online auction. New items are added every day under 26 different categories. While there are items listed best taken advantage of by people who live or are willing to visit locally, don’t let that stop you from taking a look. How about bidding on a one week stay in a "cottage" on the Outer Banks. Prefer a Florida vacation? How about a stay in a townhouse condo in the Florida Keys? There are also books, gift cards and many other items to choose from that could easily be shipped.

MHAFC 2007 Online Auction

Mother’s Day is coming up. Find a gift for Mom and support an important cause. Just a thought…

~ Connie

Why Disability Isn't Talked About During Presidential Debates

First off I want to say that I can answer lots of mysterious questions because my grandparents came from the Finnish woods and they knew all about forest superstitions and so if you want to know why socks disappear in the laundry room I am your go to person. (They of course didn’t have a laundry room in the Finnish woods, but they did have sock fairies and yes, it is true that your socks will be stolen if you covet even for a minute someone else’s possessions.)

The fact is that there are over fifty million Americans with disabilities and if you factor in that these people have friends and families the disability vote may in fact be the largest sector of the voting population. Yet its seldom one hears the "d" word when our plutocrats are gilding the lily.

The reason is that disability is believed to be a code word for "entitlement" and both the Republicans and the Dems want to avoid the appearance of being in a "giving mood".

Yet disability and its associated issues of accommodation and universal design and health care policy should be an opportunity to encourage a capitalist system to invest in improving the lives of people with bodily differences. The consumer numbers are certainly already there. And the numbers are growing.

Since all the major candidates in both parties are now on the web I encourage people to write disability related questions to each and every political hopeful.

If you don’t have a lot of time then one question will do:

Dear _________: How can we at last assure that people with disabilities in the United States can fully participate in our nation’s economic and civic culture?

You could also ask each candidate to talk about the sock fairy.

S.K.

P.S. submitted by Connie: read what this man, Eric Taffoureau-Millet, is doing in France to bring attention to this very issue.

P.S.S. also by Connie: I was looking for the link to the Rolling Rains Report by Scott Rains (for the accomodation and universal design link above) and in doing so stumbled on Scott’s May 2 post titled: Why Stephen Kuusisto Will Let Stephen Hawking Blast into Space First. Read this comment by Scott and you’ll want to read more of his post:

"Who can predict the cultural fallout of someone as visibly and severely
disabled as Hawking penetrating the sanctum of space travel machismo. Brokenback Space Cowboys on DVD?"

Thanks for the link Scott.

Field of Dreams

If you have seen the film "Field of Dreams" you probably know that Iowa is a beautiful place. The farm house and field used in the film are near Iowa City where the University of Iowa is located and where the writer W. P. Kinsella (author of Shoeless Joe on which the movie was based) studied at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop.

One of the signature phrases in that film is the line: "If you build it they will come." Connie and I have been lured to Iowa City by the potentiality and substance of that phrase. I will be joining the faculty of the University of Iowa’s graduate program in creative nonfiction next fall and I will also be working with the Carver Center for Macular Degeneration at the UI’s health clinic as their first ever "poet in residence" at the medical college.

Connie can speak for herself of course, but I can say that we both have made good friends in Ohio and we are not leaving Columbus and the land of the Buckeyes without sincere feelings of loss. But we hope to carry with us some deep and lasting friendships from our 7 years in Ohio.

We can’t promise to wear Buckeye regalia in Iowa City. That would probably be a monumental blunder. The only thing worse would be to wear a Michigan shirt.

Our blog will of course continue without interruption and we look forward to attracting new friends to the Planet.

Steve

P.S. Visit SawxBlog.com for this review of Shoeless Joe