Wheelchairs, bit of a rant was Re: [Sca-cooks] sedan chairs

[Gorgeous Muiredach]

At 02:11 AM 11/16/2002, you wrote:
>Daniel Raoul commented:
>>>To choose an example familiar to this list:  if Duke Cariadoc is ever
>>>confined to a wheelchair [may Allah forbid such calamity!], will he quit
>>>participating in the SCA?  I dearly hope not, for he has much to contribute
>>>besides his purely authentic presentation.

Forgive me for picking up on this, but I must comment.

A)  We're not *confined* to a wheelchair.  Confined conveys the image of
limitation, whereas the wheelchair is a tool of freedom.  It's without the
chair that I'm confined.

B)  Duke Cariadoc or anyone might not stop participating in the SCA, but
they will discover that a lot of the fun gets out of the SCA when you have
to deal with pervasive attitudes towards folks in chairs.  Don't get me
wrong, mostly, individually people in the SCA are great folks...  Get them
together as a group, and all common sense seems to flee.

and finally, perhaps most importantly:

C)  Why would it be such a calamity that Cariadoc, or anyone for that
matter, would have to use a wheelchair?  It is NOT the end of the world,
life goes on.  And quite honestly, my quality of life has MUCH improved
since I've had this bit of hardware to sit on.  I'm not the only "gimp" to
think that.

All flames welcomed, off list ( muiredach at bmee.net )

Gorgeous Muiredach the Odd
Clan of Odds
Shire of Forth Castle, Meridies
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Nicolas Steenhout
"You must deal with me as I think of myself" J. Hockenberry