He felt that gave the disability meaning.
I think that often, this is what
parents are most in need of emotionally, as well-- thus the resonance of
Welcome to Holland, which makes most parents cry the first time they read it.
Of course, over time, you keenly feel that maybe that kind of Pollyanna rhetoric ought to go pound sand...
but it doesn't mean that there aren't some fringe benefits from living outside the mainstream. I just wish that we had the OPTION to join the mainstream when it suits us, and we don't, of course. I'm like any other parent to a child with special needs there, I think. This, too, transcends "disability" and includes giftedness at high LOG, doesn't it? It would sure be nice to have the option to just go with the flow and be "normative" once in a while.
What I find
most interesting is that so many of those benefits transcend the specifics and nature of the disabling condition... they are about stepping outside of one's assumptions as much as anything else.
Life with disability has really forced me to take off my blinders. I think that many people never realize that they are wearing them in the first place.
