It is a fact of life that all “Temporarily Abled Persons” will most
likely join the disabled minority at some point, unless they face a tragic,
accidental, early death. I think no matter how much equal representation is
given to disabled people, fear of losing something central to our lives, like
our mobility, will always be present. I disagree with Mairs’ statement that
transitioning to a disabled life “will be a good bit easier psychologically if
you are accustomed to seeing disability as a normal characteristic.” My mom has
been disabled for the past couple years because of severe spine and shoulder
injuries from car accidents and surgeries gone wrong. She went from working
50-130 hours a week for a couple decades to 0, meaning she’s always around for
me to grow “accustomed” to. My mother’s a well-off cripple, in that the
government pays for her to stay home and she can spend her days doing her
favorite activity -- online shopping. I tend to look at it as a nice early
retirement, to save myself from more depressing alternatives; but I still
cannot imagine myself being ok with constantly taking painkillers, doctors
appointments and physical therapy a few times a week, being unable to sit or
stand or walk for more than a short period of time, or not being able to bend
or twist my body or pick up or pull or push medium-weight objects. It certainly
wouldn’t be the end of the world, but it’d be the start of a miserable one. My
sister, who admittedly has a much closer relationship with our mother than I
do, tells me to have some sympathy, because for the past 25 years, her work has
been her whole identity. Now she’s left being some sort of stay at home mom
that can’t drive herself or do most of the chores around the house and doesn’t
have kids left to be a mother to anyways because they’re already grown. Although
I try to avoid this sentiment, and as far as I know my mom does as well, there
will always be the undeniable negative perspective. Representation, in my
opinion, will not help TAPs be cool with eventually becoming disabled; being
disabled sucks. But knowing this, the disabled should be more equally represented
because maybe it’ll suck a little less if they see someone like them.
