Kill All Good Men

I don't know where my audience is at in their experience, but I can't believe how often I have to explain to people that having limb-impairing brain-damage means more than just "minor lifestyle readjustments".

The biggest thing is that people frequently describe my sense of impending (impending meaning sooner than tomorrow) trouble as being "unrealistic".

But the fact of the matter is that when you have one bad leg, one bad hand (my formerly dominant hand, of all cruel coincidences) and exceptional vision now confused in the brain...you must plan further ahead for things than any NON-DISABLED person thinks is necessary.

In my experience now...it seems that it is the NON-DISABLED people who have a skewed sense of reality, because in their minds every problem is solved "WITH JUST A LITTLE EFFORT".

One person I know actually conducts little self-disabling experiments to understand what I am experiencing...and for that I am thankful...although the actual realization of just how difficult life is for me has brought her to-tears on occasion, because she has acknowledged that SHE can't live the way I am FORCED TO LIVE 24/7 for more than 10 seconds without becoming so agitated that she cannot continue.

And for the most part, I genuinely empathize with returning soldiers who now have life-altering injuries because they will be thrust into the same climate of poor-understanding apathy that I encounter every day (BTW, as a guy I wear my hair neat-but-perpetually-long, partially so as not to be confused with heroic veterans, partially so my hair will not grow so quickly [cut your hair often enough at $10 a cut on a fixed-income and you won't have enough money for food...trust me]).

Anyway, the bottom line is that I see NON-DISABLED PEOPLE as being the people least able to survive any REAL change of abilities, while in turn they treat me as if -I- am the one to be pitied.

If they only knew how tough I REALLY AM.