Comments on: dignity

By: Whymommy

Whymommy — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:44:57 +0000

Yes, yes, yes. I hear you, and you are so very right on this. It only takes an hour in a wheelchair to be forever changed.

By: Sock Girl

Sock Girl — Thu, 29 May 2008 00:21:58 +0000

One day whilr getting groceries I started chatting to the woman behind me in the line, who happened to be in a wheelchair. It wasn’t really chatting like I would with someone I knew well (because I didn’t)… just the “nice day, how ’bout the price of milk” kind of stuff. And when I was done paying and about to leave the woman thanked me for talking to her. She said people don’t usually do that. And I found that incredibly sad.

I’m sorry you had to experience that kind of invisibility. But I thank you for writing about it. It was very thought provoking.

By: JuliaKB

JuliaKB — Sun, 25 May 2008 07:25:07 +0000

I love this post.

By: Haley-O

Haley-O — Sat, 24 May 2008 02:04:56 +0000

I always make a point of making eye contact with people in wheel chairs, especially since they are more apt than people not in wheelchairs to make eye contact with me, and to smile. I do this because I KNOW how brutal society is and can only imagine how alienating being in a wheelchair must be….

I really loved this post. There’s no ignoring a voice like yours. Thank you for this.

By: Joanna

Joanna — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:46:19 +0000

Bon: I just looked this dude up and realized that alas, I do like him. I had no idea he was the song-writer behind SO MANY classic songs I love. What are your favorite’s of Leonard’s? I will check them out on ITunes – Suzanne, by Judy Collins, I grew up to. Turns out he wrote it. Never knew that…(and boy, in his younger days, he was a hot one!)

By: Kelly

Kelly — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:25:25 +0000

I was just thinking the other night about how much I love “Everybody Knows.” So much emotion packed into a few minutes.

Glad you got to experience that, and sorry the crowd was afraid to look a beautiful woman in the eyes.

By: bon

bon — Fri, 23 May 2008 02:16:13 +0000

Niobe, in a way a wheelchair might be your worst nightmare.

because even if you want to hide, being invisible while in public is distinctly different from just having people not notice you…it’s not the pleasant anonymity of a busy city street or anything. rather, people go out of their way not to notice you, trip over themselves trying not to notice you, rendering you far more conspicuous in a sense. it’s like being a rolling source of discomfort – and that’s evident, even if no one makes eye contact.

By: Mad Hatter

Mad Hatter — Fri, 23 May 2008 02:14:30 +0000

BTW, did you see the documentary on The National a couple of years ago about the real-life Suzanne. She’s in her 60s now, living in a trailer on a beach somewhere in California, crazy and lovable as the day is long. And, yes, real. Very real. Too real, in fact, for my love of the song to bear.

I have always wondered about the Edmonton prostitute named Marianne, though.

By: niobe

niobe — Fri, 23 May 2008 01:39:19 +0000

I often wish I were invisible. And I can’t stand for people to look me in the eye. There must be others — whether in wheelchairs or not — who feel exactly the same way.

(and, just by the way, I think Leonard Cohen must be a Canadian thing because neither I nor anyone else in the US that I’ve asked have ever heard of him)

By: Aliki

Aliki — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:42:17 +0000

I’m envious you saw Cohen. And I’ve been guilty of the look-away myself, I must confess. Not because I don’t want to see, but always because my instinct is to NOT make the person feel comfortable, and so I look away.