"What did you do to yourself to get stuck with those awful things?"

i really hope youll take a few moments to read this piece by Toby MacNutt about being asked questions about mobility aids by strangers. It is seriously fucking powerful and beautiful and says so many of the things i wish i could say more on the regular, instead of just shutting down. i've written angry screeds about it, cried about it, ranted to friends about it, written in my journal about it, put it in a zine, questioned folks about it, tried hard to answer respectfully despite the disrespect given me, any number of things. But i think this piece by gizometer really just sums it up. <3

"It has so many common elements to questions I've heard a million times now - even in the scant handful of years I've been 'out' or visible as dis/abled. I'm going to try to draw each one out and address where it comes from and why it doesn't work. Where I can, I'll suggest alternatives. Maybe you've wondered the same things, about me or about someone else, or maybe you've had these questions asked of you, to your frustration/confusion/sighs. I hope this helps. I don't get the chance to explain this all to everyone who asks - I have a life, too, and places to go, and other demands on my time/energy - but conceptually, I want to think about it, I want others to think about it, I want to tell it, I want people to know."

http://gizmometer.dreamwidth.org/17655.html?#cutid1