Okay, I'll delurk. I'm cognitively disabled, and one of my favourite leisure
activities is taking David Pfeiffer literally whether or not he is speaking
tongue-in-cheek.
Another of my leisure activities, at the moment, is priest-baiting, since one
of the things I am trying to do is figure out how to actually participate in
church, and the major disability issue that people at this church, and my last
one, can identify is whether or not people who use wheelchairs can get into
the undercroft. (Whether or not it's a good idea to secure the only door that
doesn't open on to stairs with a bicycle chain and padlock when there are
people who need to use a ramp inside the building has not really been
addressed, but apparently the bicycle chain has now been hidden, since I got
very upset at not being able to leave last Sunday -- generally, of course,
church doors are locked with me on the *outside*, institution doors with me on
the *inside* so perhaps I should see this as progress. On the other hand, as
soon as I indicated that I wasn't leaving until the door was opened, everyone
in the building was enslisted in a frantic search for the key.) Why, just
today I assured the priest that I, like disabled people everywhere, am eager
to discover the joys of being socially isolated in the undercroft instead of
just socially isolated on the main floor, but while I am waiting for that
thrilling experience, I would like to explore some of the other advantages of
church membership (he condeded that some people do in fact have reasons to go
to church other than getting into the undercroft), and that perhaps figuring
out a workable communication system for coffee hour (which is not held in the
undercroft, a fact of which the priest was apparently ignorant) might be a
useful thing for me. I also quoted David to the priest. (He took both of
these "behaviours" very well, and I have not (yet) been asked to leave this
church, nor has a systematic extinction plan to decrease mention of the name
"David Pfeiffer" (yet) been instituted. (I am pretty sure such a plan was
formally instituted at my last church, and that they were working on a similar
plan for the name "Ron Amundson."))
I haven't gotten into this before, because I hate to admit how often I have
failed "leisure skills training." Unlike David, I often enjoy reading 20th
century English-language philsophy; on the other hand, it takes about 2 1/2
hours to obtain a moderate understanding of an hour-long drama on TV, and I
never quite grasped the point of most of the other "leisure skills" I have
been "trained" in. The priest was asking me today about places I go in the
community, and I was only able to come up with the local office-supply store.
(Actually, I like the office-supply store a lot. It is full of an exciting
array of paper products and three-ring binders and so forth.)
I'm enjoying this thread mostly because I'm learning a little bit about what
"leisure" means. What counted as "leisure," back when it was a Major Priority
in my life, seemed to change every time the staffing patterns get reworked,
but it was never a pleasant activity.
Cal Montgomery
[log in to unmask]
In a message dated 1/28/99 4:27:28 PM Central Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
> Having observed this list for some time as a lurker, it seems that its
> focus is on able minded people with flawed bodies. People with
> intellectual disabilities, or there parents/carers/advocates are not
> only under represented, but also don't seem to be particularly welcome.
> The discussion on leisure again has all the narrowness of focus of a
> public school secret society, and again ignores intellectual disability,
> one of the largest components of the disability spectrum.
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