Complex innit ?, and it depends upon the definition of disability for if you
define that as opression one does indeed want to be rid of it, unless one
paradoxically needs the persecution in order to focus on identity after the
fashion of Cavafy's Waiting for the Barbarians Poem.
To me living on an ex Council estate is a disability, it certainly curtails
my potential in many ways including the physical, but not the least as a
result of the perception of what council estate folk are like which is
disabling.
I have what those who like to use the term would call impairments, I would
merely call them variants from either my original status or aspects of my
being.
I have monocular vision, and have no idea whatever how it is that people who
see with both eyes see, I can't imagine it, and I am not really worse off
without it except in so far as legal restrictions on driving certain kinds
of vehicles.
I have physical problems as a result of the ageing process interacting with
a difference in my joint structure, and that is a damn nuisance, but there
is nothing that can be done about it, it seems, as like my Land Rover, I
wear out too.
I would certainly be inconvenienced by some new imposition on my current
status such as a spinal injury, but if that happens I will do whatever I
must or can and not hope for the impossible or even demand the improbable.
As for my neurological diversities, my being on the autistic spectrum,
dyslexic etc. Some of that is so wrapped up in the way I think, concieve
language, and relate to the world that to slough it off would really make me
into a less valid personality. Yes a cure would make me invalid (hows that
for word play)
To me the cure lobby with regard to autism comes from a particularly western
and even US phenomenon where people have been brought up to believe that
there is a cure for everything, and that someone is to blame if they don't
get there share of Mom's apple pie.
As for the cure of souls, I leave that to the curate, not that I subscribe
either to the Roman Catholic view or the wooly wooly church of England and
have my own readings of the miracles in the Bible, for one thing is
noticable, whatever the gloss of the erly church fathers orthodoxising
tendancy (I believe the Orthodox church are heretical too)
Jesus whatever you believe him to be or have been, within the internal logic
of the gospels, had the power to cure every "sick" person not only in Judea
and Galillee but simultaneosly accross the whole world. He did not do so.
Larry
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Disability-Research Discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Karen
> Beauchamp-Pryor
> Sent: 15 October 2004 17:22
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: cure and identity
>
>
> How do we justify not wanting to be non-disabled? I've been
> struggling with this question for the last five weeks.
>
>
>
> Five weeks ago, after months of deliberation and anxiety, I
> decided to go ahead and have a congenital cataract removed. I
> had been offered the operation at numerous times throughout my
> life, but had been warned of the risks. In addition to the
> risks, I also felt guilty at wanting to see more and thought I
> should count myself lucky for the level of vision I had.
>
>
>
> The operation was successful and I can't express the overwhelming
> joy I have experienced since. I can now see people's smiles,
> sadness, wrinkles and rain. These are, obviously, all personal
> emotions to me and are very different to the barriers I
> encountered as a result of social, political and economic
> structures. I am confused as to my identity and it is scary,
> but I am who I am with or without a disability.
>
>
>
> ________________End of message______________________
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