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jesse_the_kAnother great column from s.e.smith, who goes deep into the flock of starlings metaphor. The topic is the surge of people newly disabled by post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2, better known as Long Covid. While disability elders can see this as a chance to mentor the newbies, it’s also a chance for us to see the world anew:
One of the biggest myths about the disability community is just that: That it is a community. Instead, it is more a flock of starlings, whirling and whipping around each other, shifting in the gathering dusk, never still. Some peel off and are left behind; others are in the thick. Some think they are leading, at least for a time; others are overridden when they try to split away. Some may convince themselves that they have a single common aim and experience, and in the process, they accuse others of wrongthink, otherness, an inability to toe the line, to perform. You are birding wrong.
[… snip …]
In the transition from one space to another, the only people who know what that expanse of road looks like are those who are on it, or have passed over it. They know things others cannot know, because they do not know they need to know them. Their unfamiliarity with systems disabled people have known forever is in itself a lesson about society and culture, about access to information, about access to the ability to share information. Disabled people know they are afraid and think they know why they are afraid—disablism, significant life changes—but perhaps asking them may reveal interesting things about the world, about ourselves. Perhaps understanding the language they use to describe themselves will provide valuable insights into other ways to view and interact with disability, a reminder that the flock is not a monolith, that each individual within it has intrinsic worth, value, and experience. Perhaps it will help us band together to fight off predators, harrying ravens and hawks into submission with a power we didn’t know we had.
To these new birds in the flock, it is easy to say you are ours now and we will show you how things are done, but perhaps other things to say are where did you come from and what did you learn along the way and here is my number—text anytime!
https://catapult.co/stories/se-smith-year-in-review-long-covid-disability-chronic-illness
(no subject)
Date: 20/12/2022 09:42 pm (UTC)Indeed
Date: 20/12/2022 11:33 pm (UTC)it makes me ponder when I've been the pushy disability doula imposing the party line on folks just entering the disability reality.
I spent ~20 years in loud public advocacy -- I was the person who would encounter a visibly disabled person on the bus and tell them about transit options.
Then I spent 6 years in the glide path down.
Just shaking my head, really.
Re: Indeed
Date: 20/12/2022 11:48 pm (UTC)Re: Indeed
Date: 21/12/2022 01:56 am (UTC)Awwww, thanks so much.
Re: Indeed
Date: 21/12/2022 04:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 21/12/2022 06:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 23/12/2022 03:50 pm (UTC)Did it challenge an assumption?
(no subject)
Date: 24/12/2022 06:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 24/12/2022 03:03 am (UTC)