On the Bright Side

When the call went out for entries for a disability blog carnival having to do with “a few of my favorite things” I must admit that I scratched my head. Then I scratched my head again. Sometimes I can just sit and scratch for indecent amounts of time.

The call for blog posts having to do with one’s “favorite things” didn’t suggest that one had to write about disability, and yet I persisted with my scratching because (of course) "my favorite things” becomes a far more challenging and complex topic when filtered through the grinder of disability.

It’s not so easy to sing like Julie Andrews about the simple pleasures of puppies and snow on one’s eyelashes when the electric wheelchair is unable to get through the unshoveled crosswalks or the dog guide user is told that she or he can’t come into a restaurant though the law permits guide dogs everywhere. For me, the daily remembrance that people with disabilities remain marginally employed in the United States is sufficient to keep me from singing like Maria von Trapp.

Still its possible to say with honesty that there are beautiful dimensions to living life with one or more disabilities, and it remains important for people with disabilities to say so.

Of course I can’t speak for the entire dairy industry—I can’t even speak for the cheese makers. I certainly shouldn’t be read as a spokesperson for all blind or visually impaired people. And with that cautionary rubric out of the way, here are a few of my favorite things about blindness:

Continue reading “On the Bright Side”

Oh, to be Connected Again!

We’re baaaaaaack.  Back online, that is.  It’s been a week since we’ve
had internet connection and I must admit, I have mixed emotions about
the fact that I’ve missed access to the "world wide web" as much as I
have.  No newspaper, no TV, no internet – it’s a strange kind of
isolation. 

But today, even though the U of Iowa has cancelled classes and there’s
a travel advisory due to the ice storm, a rep from "Qwest" arrived at
our doorstep to connect us to the rest of the world.  It’s good to be
back.

Thanks, Tim.

~ Connie

Dodging Snowflakes

We’re in!

The moving truck was loaded up on Tuesday and left Worthington, OH for Iowa City by 2:00 p.m.  That night Columbus experienced the first snow storm of the season.  Maggie, Roscoe and I left town, our van loaded down with "essentials", on Wednesday morning during the peak of the storm.  Thankfully an hour west and the roads were clear…

Thursday morning the truck arrived at our new home.  By 3:00 the guys were finished unloading our possessions, just as snowflakes started falling again.  It was the start of "my" first Iowa blizzard. 

I’m ready for a long winter’s nap.

~ Connie

Dear Friends,

Thank you to those of you who left lovely comments on my last post, "How Love Works".  Blue Girl, I removed the "Ho".  Thanks for the heads up.  I have no idea how I did that…

How Love Works

The thing about packing up the contents of a house as you prepare to move is that it’s possible to stumble on things you forgot you have.  I recently stumbled on this poem, written for me by Steve.  I don’t recall when.  I posted this today, December 5th,  just before leaving our old home in Worthington, OH, where we raised our two teenagers, to drive to our new home in Iowa City, where we’ll settle in as empty nesters.  There, I’m sure we will find "the new green of fresh belief".   There we’re going to create magic. 

~ Connie

How Love Works

Sometimes if you’re lucky you get to write something
For someone you love. This is a magic circumstance.
Like going to the lakeshore and tossing in a feather and a stone.
The stone floats of course, and someone you haven’t seen in years
Turns up at your door–and the dear light of spring spins through the poplars
And the neighborhood is filled with the new green of fresh belief.
Birds are part of this. Victory tailed swallows and the marsh wren
And the happenstance birds without names, all stray
Into view though you weren’t searching for ideas
Or magic or forgetfulness —
Love without direction or sense –winged love
Stirred by impossible light.
Small things hove into sight. Wings. leaves. houses
Where once you were happy, will be
Then happy again
There at home in the lessons and days of love.

–for Connie


 

Cell Phones for Soldiers

Two teenage siblings, Brittany and Robbie Bergquist of
Massachusetts, learned several years ago of an army reservist who owed
$7600 for making phone calls home from Iraq.  Initially, they raided
their piggy banks and held car washes in an effort to help this
reservist meet his bills.

"We take for granted our ability to call home and speak to our families.  The troops don’t do that…" — Brittany, 16

Since then, the Bergquists have founded "Cell Phones for Soldiers"
which they manage from their home.  In doing so, they’ve provided more
than 24 million minutes (worth $1.4 million) in the form of more than
400.000 phone cards.  That breaks down to approximately 25,000 one-hour
phone cards sent overseas each month.  Their ultimate goal: "a phone
card a month for each of the more than 185,000 U.S. service members in
Iraq, Afghanistan and the Person Gulf".

They need our help.  Recycle your old cell phones and help support our troops.  Cell Phones for Soldiers solicits
unwanted cell-phones, sells them to a recycler for about $5 each, uses
the proceeds to buy prepaid phone cards that are shipped to the war
zone.

To donate a "Cell Phone for Soldiers" (including all makes and
models, chargers, batteries, accessories, BlackBerry PDA’s and pagers,
go to www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com/locateDropoff.html.  To download a postage paid shipping label, go to www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com/shippingLabel-generic.html and send to:

Cell Phones for Soldiers
c/o ReCellular
2555 Bishop Circle West
Dexter, MI 48130

A hearty congratulations to Brittany and Robbie.  This is quite an
accomplishment for two young people.  And quite a gift for members of
our armed services and their families and friends.

Cross-posted on Blog [with]tv 

Still

As written by Simi Linton:

Definitions of the word “blind” found in my computer’s Thesaurus
support the idea that blindness limits . The terms ignorant,
imperceptive, insensitive, irrational, oblivious, obtuse, random, rash,
stagger, unaware, unconscious, uncontrolled, unknowing, unplanned and
violent came up on my screen. My Roget’s Thesaurus also provided
inattentive and purposeless. These meanings lurk under the surface when
the word “blind” is used whether on its own, or in pairings, in such
phrases as “blind passion”, “blind rage”, “blind justice”, “blind
drunk” and “blind faith”.

How can the culture get away with attaching such an absurd
proliferations of meanings to a condition that affects, simply, visual
acuity? Of all the impairments, blindness seems to call up the most
fantastical of responses. These are used, uncritically and without
apparent irony by many and often.

Read Simi’s post in its entirety:  Blind Blind People and Other Spurious Tales

Congratulations Simi Linton, author of "My Body Politic"

As mentioned previously on this blog, Simi Linton has a blog called Disability Culture Watch, which she categorizes as "A disability-focused commentary on the arts".  Here is an excerpt from her "About" page:

"There is an emerging cadre of dancers, actors, writers, performance
artists, and painters who are actively engaging with both the fact and
idea of disability. The most exciting work explores what disability
provides the artist, rather than what feats someone can perform despite
disability. When disabled artists use their unique bodies and voices,
something innovative happens.  My job is to follow these turns and
twists on the cultural map, selectively reporting and critiquing this
vital phenomena."

Simi is the author of My Body Politic (University of Michigan Press, 2006) and recently she has been awarded grants, one from the Puffin Foundation and one from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, to develop a stage adaptation for the book.  Congratulations, Simi!  We can’t wait!

With permission from Simi, the summary of her book, as found on her web site, is copied below for our review.  Follow this link to learn more, as well as to hear two selections from the book, read by the author herself. 

Continue reading “Congratulations Simi Linton, author of "My Body Politic"”

A Fortnight

How smug I used to be, back in the early days of blogging: I used to snicker at those bloggers who would declare that it was difficult to keep up.

But I’ve gotten my comeuppance. I have been traveling over the past two and a half weeks and I can’t seem to figure out how to connect when I’m on the road. I know that other people manage this, but I just get one nasty Microsoft screen after another that tells me that my wireless gizmo is not encrypted with the proper Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. I’m the only jerk in the coffee shop who is not getting anything done even though I’m hunched at the laptop. Or is it the case that all those other seemingly efficient people at Starbucks or the Java House or Cuppa Joe are also screwing around with incompatible wireless cards?

I am awaiting the day when the Mac people over at Apple finally make a functioning Mac for blind people. I’ve been holding my breath for twenty years. Grrrr.

In the meantime, in case anyone’s wondering what I’ve been up to, here’s a fortnight’s snapshot:

1. I ate lunch in the National Republican Women’s Club in New York City. I was accompanied by my wife Connie and several terrific people associated with the University of Iowa’s Carver Center for the Study of Macular Degeneration. I must say that even when you’re blind; it’s a bit weird to eat a salad while sitting under an enormous painting of Nancy Reagan. And in case you think I’m making a partisan joke, I will add that it’s weird to eat a salad under a portrait of any First Lady. Try eating a crouton underneath the visage of Eleanor Roosevelt. Just try it. Or just say no.

2. I spoke at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in the company of two nonfiction writers who I much admire: Wayne Koestenbaum and John D’Agata. We talked about the advent of "the lyric essay" and the important role of the late writer Deborah Tall who encouraged a generation of young writers to experiment with poetic prose. Deborah edited the literary journal Seneca Review, and the latest issue of the magazine is dedicated to her memory. This issue is well worth reading.

3. I attended a memorial service for Deborah Tall in Ithaca, New York. Her family unveiled Deborah’s tombstone which has lines from her poetry carved into the granite. In keeping with tradition the mourners each placed a pebble or small stone on top of her stone. It was snowing in Ithaca.

4. I lost my only dress shoes in a hotel in Geneva, New York and accordingly I attended Deborah’s memorial wearing sneakers. That wouldn’t be so bad except that I was also wearing a trench coat. I looked like a flasher who had somehow gotten lost in the cemetery.

5. I took my guide dog Vidal to New York and turned him over to the staff at Guiding Eyes for the Blind, the nation’s premier guide dog school as far as I’m concerned. Vidal went back to the GEB veterinary clinic for an evaluation because a local vet in Iowa City said he had a torn ligament in one of his legs. The really good news is that Vidal is perfectly okay, and the good folks at Guiding Eyes cleaned Mr. V’s teeth while he was there. I now have Vidal back at my side and he will be working for one more month before his scheduled retirement in January.

6. Did I mention that I also spoke recently at Loyola University in Baltimore? I was invited there by the writer Lia Purpura who teaches poetry and creative nonfiction there. If you don’t know Lia’s wonderful poetry and prose you are in for a real treat. While I was visiting, Lia’s new puppy," Ruby" ate the head off a rubber duck and had to be rushed to the vet for an emetic. The vet gave Ruby some eye drops that made her vomit. Who knew there was such a product? Visine for the Vomitorium. I of course wonder who invented this product. Did they plan to do it or was this the result of some weird experiment? Ruby is fine. That’s the good news.

It is good to be back in Iowa City and I’m racing now to teach a class. We’re reading Jonathan Lethem’s wonderful novel Motherless Brooklyn which is narrated by a character who has Tourette’s Syndrome and who is the kind of character who becomes your personal friend as you read.

It’s good to be back!

S.K.

A Dinner Date

So my husband calls me up and tells me that he and friend Ken have been
invited to tag along to dinner with friend Gary.  And it just so
happens that Gary’s been invited to have dinner with Chris Dodd.  Gary is a corporate real estate attorney and apparently Chris wants to chat with him about the current real estate market.

Steve’s been in Iowa now since the end of August.  I’m moving out as of
December 5th.  I know one thing for sure…for such a tiny little
place, there sure seems to be a lot going on in Iowa City.  I have a feeling I may be in for a big surprise – as in who knows – I might REALLY like it.

~ Connie