Day 214: It's Good to be Alive

It's Good to Be Alive: Observations from a Wheelchair by Jack Rushton.  ISBN: 9781599554082.

Rushton manages to do quite a bit of preaching in his less than page long essays. I fear that sometimes my blog posts come off as a little preachy. I worry that this is unappealing to some readers, but I also think that speaking directly to an audience is often more effective and engaging than focusing just on myself. Part of it may also be a latent desire to be a minister.

When I was a teenager I was very involved in the Unitarian Universalist church. I went to youth conferences, I went to church every Sunday, we even held teen worship nights over at my house, and I was involved in church politics. We were not a very large group, there were maybe eight of us at our most active, but the church seemed to enjoy the status that comes with having a large and active (for UU) youth group, if not necessarily the hormones and spastic energy that came with it.

At one point the group decided we should give a sermon to the congregation. It was something along the lines of “We have all been teenagers at one point or another, it is a difficult time, so even though you may not understand all of our behavior, please show us compassion and understanding.” It was perhaps not the most inspirational or thought provoking sermon, but people seemed to enjoy it and we got a few laughs here and there on the funny parts.

The experience made me want to do it on a weekly basis. I enjoyed writing the oration, selecting the hymns and poetry, and pulling together several different thoughts into one coherent message. I would probably make a fairly good minister and be dedicated to my congregation, if it weren't for one problem.

I'm not a big people person.

It's not that I don't like people, because I do. I am just very selective about the people I want to be around and I get somewhat resentful when I have to spend more time than absolutely necessary with people I don't like. This is sometimes accelerated when you throw politics in the mix, and there are no politics quite like church politics. I guess I always thought people ought to behave a little better than normal when they're at church, even if it is a heathen Unitarian church. Instead it seems that because religion is such a personal thing people get even more bent out of shape if their personal agenda isn't carried through. I'm less interested in ministering to people's egos than I am to their minds and souls (however you define that).

I think I'll stick with my sometimes preachy blogging and hope that my flock at least finds my sermons interesting, even if they don't always agree with my politics.

My review can be found on Goodreads.

Day 213: It's Good to be Alive

It's Good to Be Alive: Observations from a Wheelchair by Jack Rushton.  ISBN: 9781599554082.

I have had the privilege in my life to know and be friends with some pretty amazing people.  One such person is a paraplegic, who I will refer to as JS, because privacy and I haven't asked if I could use her name.  I met JS at Antioch College and was blown away by her.  Not only is she extremely smart and personable (if somewhat shy), but she had to deal with far more Antioch bullshit than I think any five people combined.

Because Antioch is sadly not set up for people with mobility issues.  The sidewalks are utter crap and consist mostly of broken and breaking asphalt, there was only one dormitory that was wheelchair accessible, and she had to use the freight elevator just to get in the library.  Despite all this she seemed to have no regrets about attending Antioch and was more than willing to educate about her condition.

I happened to have the utter joy of being able to have her as a neighbor for a couple of terms and I loved it.  We would occasionally sit together in the hallway working on projects together.  I was able to ask her questions about appropriate behavior, particularly concerning the issue of how much help is "too much" help.  I tried to always ask if she needed or wanted help rather than automatically assuming she needed it.  As someone who had limited mobility she needed to keep active in order to maintain the amount of mobility she had.  This included using a manual chair instead of an electric.  It meant she needed assitance getting across campus, but had the benefit of forcing her to use her arm muscles.

The more I've come to know JS, the more personal my questions have been.  I have never expected answers, but I have appreciated JS's openness and willingness to answer more often than not.  JS also wrote a weekly column for the Antioch Record and broached subjects and questions that it wouldn't even occur to me to ask.  All this talk makes it sound like she is A Person in a Wheelchair, but she is so much more than that.  Even though she recognizes and incorporates the wheelchair as a part of who and what she is, she in no way lets it limit her and what she can do (within reason).

My review can be found on Goodreads.