Update on the Sydney Beers Story–Remember? The Wheelchair being Pushed Down the Stairs? Anyone? I really don’t follow hockey. Definitely not NCAA hockey. But Carson Briere’s name has popped up on my various news notifications for the last month or so, ever since the wheelchair incident. So I saw the news that he’d been removed…
Tag: disability
Of Fauxpologies and Wheelchairs
For the second year in a row, my plans to use World Poetry Day to actually talk about poetry and to talk about our 30 Days, 30 Poems Project–one of my favorite things I get to work here. Once again though, something has happened that has focused my attention elsewhere. A year ago, instead of…
Spoonie Life and Sporkie Workarounds
What is Spoon Theory? What is a Spoonie? I’ve been candid about my neuro-atypicality and mental health, and about some of the details about life with chronic illness and chronic pain. Adam’s been candid about his own challenges with mental health and neuro-atypicality, too. We rely on the Spoon Theory a lot, checking with each…
Pain and Palliative Care
COVID: Another Source of Pain… and Anxiety So after nearly 36 months of working so hard to avoid COVID, I’ve got the spicy cough. I’m not actually coughing too much, but I’m congested, I’ve got itchy eyes, I’m aching everywhere and I’m exhausted. Those last two things aren’t all that unusual. Aches and exhaustion are…
Thank you for your Support
Dear 2 Rules Readers, Friends, and Followers: As you know, we make a big deal about self-care here. It’s so important to our work as writers and teachers, but also to being ourselves, and being able to be the best versions of us that we can. And a number of weeks back, some things happened that…
Talking Trash: Disability and Chores
There are tasks we assume short people will have trouble with. At just about five feet tall, I have plenty of experience there. But taking out the trash was never on the list of things I expected my height to cause problems with. It probably wasn’t on your list of short-people-problems either. About ten years…
On Personal Independence
I’m writing this with fireworks exploding in the background. My neighbors like extended holiday celebrations. It’s been going on for days–just like the two weeks of fireworks around Christmas time. I suppose they’re celebrating independence. I am not feeling so much like celebrating independence right now. National Issues of Personal Independence Sure, there are all…
Queer Pride and Self-Care
I’ve written a number of pieces for this website about my experiences as a rape survivor. I’ve written about how important it was for me to change my own language about my experience–to use the word “rape” instead of “sexual assault.” And I’ve written about consent and mental health, I’ve written about the way we…
My Grandfather’s Good Hand
Last night somewhere dark hung with picturesMy grandfather was walking behind me whenHe fellBecause he had died some months before; I turned around to see:Frightful wounds were opening on his bodyI reached for his hand to help him upHe extended the good hand The good hand that had always worked for twoWhose grip, as he…
Learning to Take up Space
Pride started as a riot. And since then it’s been somewhere between a protest and a party. What if this year, for me, Pride Month is about figuring out how to take up space and find my seat at the table? In other words, about finding my Pride? These days, I take up space mainly…