I have logical and philosophical objections to certain words used to describe me or what I do. I don't expect anyone to change the way they speak, but feel free to entertain yourself by mulling two ideas and reading one egregious rhyme (think Lewis Carroll meets either Timothy Leary or Tom Lehrer, I'm not sure which.)
Word 1: Disabled
Hah! I am extremely able, thank yeeew. With both hands behind my back and my head held under water, I am still able. I'm able to add 2 and 2, for instance, or quote that wonderful bit from Twelfth Night that starts, "I'd build me a willow cabin at your gate, and wait upon my soul within the house ..." Mind you, if you're holding me underwater, it would be hard to check that, but I can still do it, I assure you.
I am handicapped. Like a runty little horse that has to have 30 pounds of lead stuffed into its saddle before it gets into the race. Like a golfer who's being scored by a drunk with a broken calculator. I have exactly the same tasks to accomplish as anyone else in the race or on the course, but I have some added burdens that make it rather harder to succeed.
Word 2: Recovery
Why should I want to re-cover? Of all the covers that have been ripped off, I can't say I think all that many need to go back on. I love all this fresh air. I love the lack of artifice. I love the inward freedom of having so much stuffing removed.
I don't need recovering. Appropriate padding, yes; portable cushions, yes please, by all means. But upholstery is just one big refuge for dust mites and dander, metaphorical and otherwise.
I aim to heal. Healing from any profound physical or mental insult (and CRPS is certainly both!) does not mean going back to what or who or how I was before, it means finding a new way forward. There is no way back, and if there were, I have no reason (given how things played out) to think that returning there would be good for my health!
No, it's forward for me: man the lifeboats, or woman them of course, but I'll head for new horizons rather than try to wade back through the hideous swamp I sometimes think I'm climbing out of.
The Rhyme: "Re-cover and Heel -- an overstretched metaphor"
Before you read further, let it be clearly understood that I love dogs, I have always loved dogs, and I'm old enough to use the word "bitch" in its traditional sense of female dog. In this case, an upholstered one...
The brocade bitch took a turn for the worse
and bit off the toe of a shoe.
The shoe kicked back with a bitter laugh
And said, "That the worst you can do?"
Upholstery torn, the bitch barked out,
"You're badly in need of a nurse!"
The shoe stomped off and hollered back,
"You'll soon be in need of a hearse!"
So the bitch went home to patch things up
While the shoe sought places new.
She's jacquard now, otherwise fine;
He's Prada, Gucci, and Diesel too.
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I love the poem.
ReplyDeleteLabels are, of course, useful. It's good to know exactly what your problem is for example. But they are also away of wrapping up stuff we don't want to deal with and putting it away. Hence the blanket term disability lumps together everything from broken hands to MS to being bonkers and then we the rest of us can just forget about it.
Friend Laura tried to post the following for a week, so, at the risk of being tacky, I'm posting it for her. Her phraseology is too delightful to miss.
ReplyDelete===
Yeah! Who wants to be covered in stuffy, stifling chintz anyway? I think your take on recovery would appeal to a lot of people I know who've had illusions of comfort and dust bunnies rather savagely stripped from them and who now may find they don't want to be stuffed back under the flowery upholstery. They can see much better without it.
By the way, happy Mercury directograde! Hopefully this means the past will stop rearing its rather fetching head for a while. (It must be rather fetching, that's why we turn around to look at it.)