Enabled/Habilitado: Thoughts on disability - Reflecciones sobre discapacidad

  Texto en Español sigue del texto en Inglés As I graduated from The College of Wooster in the mid-2000s, I fell into a deep sense of sadness and uncertainty. I had applied for the Peace Corps, and had been turned down because of my disability, which on the one hand seemed strange, as I had lived in Mexico most of my life up to that point, and had managed my healthcare quite well. On the other hand, much of my medical-related history had actually happened in the United States, so perhaps that factored into the decision. I am not sure – though in a wonderful twist of government bureaucracy, several weeks after I received the medical rejection, I later received a congratulatory note saying my legal clearance had gone through, and I had to remind them that they had already turned down my application on medical grounds. Many of my last-minute Wooster job searches had also fallen through, and I was deeply unsure of what to do next. I returned to San Cristóbal, and found volunteer jobs,...

   Link to image source Texto en Español sigue del Texto en Inglés Several years ago, as I was walking from the office building where I work towards the nearby metro station, a woman stopped me and said “you have such a beautiful smile, and I can see you have issues walking [I was using my trekking poles and have a distinctive gait for sure]. God made you very special and I want to make sure you know that.” I thanked her and continued walking, not quite knowing what to make of the interaction. I appreciated the compliment, and, I did not exactly see other smiling people get told they were special for merely existing. No matter. I continued my commute home. Several months later, as I was getting lunch from a vendor on the street (maneuvering my trekking poles so I could hold the bag with my food), a man approached me and told me “I just want you to know that you can be healed. If you pray and ask to be healed, it will happen. Just you wait. You just need to have faith. You will...

  One of the movies I mull over and reflect on every so often is “L’Intrus” (“The Intruder”) by French director Claire Denis ( an interesting fan video summary is here ). The beautifully shot 2004 film touches on a number of themes, including belonging, fatherhood, masculinity, religion, colonialism, immigration, and the black market for human organs (among others). It is not an easy film to follow, but the plot (and spoilers ahead), centers on Louis, a mysterious former mercenary, who receives a black market heart after suffering a heart attack while swimming in a lake on the French/Swiss border. He specifies to the organ traffickers that he wants a young man’s heart to “preserve his character”  and after an encounter in Paris where he coldly belittles one of his sons, Louis travels to South Korea for the heart transplant, and then to Tahiti in search of another son he fathered decades ago with a local woman. The film then follows this shadowy man, as he ultimately becomes c...

  Image source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel As I left St. Michael’s Hospital in Milwaukee after six years of on-and-off medical treatment, I did not know quite what to make of myself. I felt caught between appreciating what my body had learned to do, and the degree to which many of my peeing and pooping accidents had come under control, at least somewhat, and the lack of privacy and handling of my body. I was still unsure how to love Brother Mule, or whether anyone else could, how long the gains I had accomplished would last, what other complications might arise, or how I would balance the “clinical intimacy” of the treatments that had been gnawing at my mind. In addition to parsing out the overall sense of “clinical intimacy”, I was also trying to parse out my relationship to the specific nurses who had taken care of me all those years. On the one hand, they were (and are) some of the kindest and most encouraging people I knew and know. On the other hand, had they not had a hand ...