10 posts from April 2008

Awhile back there was a QotD question about what cliche or phrase do you wish weren't used anymore- something like that.

Well, I thought of one this morning on the drive to work.  I heard the phrase, 'just a crutch', used in a song, and I cringed.

I do not like the phrase 'just a crutch'.  A crutch is a good thing!  Literally speaking, without crutches, people who have difficulty walking would be left crawling on the ground or left to sit on the sidelines.  'Just a crutch' is yet another term that tempts those with physical disabilities to feel different than others, prejudged, and overlooked.

Spiritually speaking, I feel offended by that term, as it is used to describe everything from religion to addictions, etc, in criticism that those who depend on things like that should instead pull themselves up by their bootstraps and stand on their own, in endorsement of that wonderful ideology of self-sufficiency.  However, those of us who utilize 'crutches' such as the above do so because we can't stand on our own.  We need something to help us walk.  We just need to learn to use the right kind of crutch. 

The crutch of religion or addiction must be laid down, not so we can because more self-reliant but so we can become more dependent on Jesus.

Oh, my goodness, I'm actually going to say it- Jesus is my crutch, my walker, my wheelchair, and my gurney.  Ah, that's too cheesy to post.  :-D

I sat down at the piano today and noticed my mom's old hymn book sitting on the music stand.  I flipped through it and began to play the song "Have Thine Own Way, Lord".  I've been thinking about the lyrics ever since.  Especially the last verse, as one who struggles a lot in her very being:

"...Hold o'er my being Absolute sway.
Fill with Thy Spirit Till all shall see
Christ only, always, Living in me."

Have Thine Own Way, Lord
Lyrics by Adelaide A. Pollard
music by George C. Stebbins

Have Thine own way, Lord, Have Thine own way;
Thou art the Potter; I am the clay.
Mould me and make me After Thy will,
While I am waiting, Yielded and still.

Have Thine own way, Lord, Have Thine own way;
Search me and try me, Master, today.
Whiter than snow, Lord, Wash me just now,
As in Thy presence Humbly I bow.

Have Thine own way, Lord, Have Thine own way;
Wounded and weary, Help me, I pray.
Power, all power, Surely is Thine;
Touch me and heal me, Saviour divine.

Have you ever been skinny dipping?

Used to do it all the time.  Would take my skinny friends by the ankles and dip them head first into my gravy or whatever sauce I had available, then I'd send them on their way, laughing as they ran into doors and things till they could get the sauce out of their eyes.  Course they weren't really my friends after that.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Disability rights advocates and medical ethicists praised a precedent-setting ruling Friday by the Illinois Appellate Court denying a bid to sterilize a mentally disabled woman against her will...

..."Tubal ligation is a particularly drastic means of preventing a mentally incompetent ward from becoming pregnant," Judge Joseph Gordon wrote in the 36-page opinion. There are "less intrusive and less psychologically harmful [birth-control] alternatives."...

..."It's extraordinarily significant" because it guarantees the disabled a court hearing, said Katie Watson, a Northwestern University professor who wrote a friend-of-the-court brief in the case on behalf of about two dozen medical ethicists.

"In the past, this was a decision that could be made between a guardian and a doctor," she said. "The decision must be moved into the light."

The ruling means a guardian must go through some "significant legal hoops" before a court will order sterilization, said the woman's attorney, John Whitcomb of Equip for Equality, a disability rights group.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

A right delayed is a right denied.

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.

Yes, it really happens.  People with developmental disabilities experience housing discrimination.

I've shared my experience here in an older post, "How Do I Feel About That?"  Here's what's happening in Cicero, New York.

From Central New York News at syracuse.com:

Cicero Town Councilor Jim Corl and Town Supervisor Chet Dudzinski are calling for the state legislature to repeal a mental hygiene law that requires people with developmental disabilities who want to move into a neighborhood to seek town board approval....

...At the required public hearing, several neighbors of the proposed site objected, saying that having such a group home in their neighborhood would increase traffic, decrease home values and force them to keep a closer eye on their children.

And News 10 Now:

CICERO, N.Y. - Is a thirty-year-old state law discriminating against people with developmental disabilities? The Cicero Town Board thinks so. Their actions come on the heels of strong neighborhood opposition to a brand new neighborhood group home.

It would be along Snowshoe Trail. A home, established by Community Options Incorporated, for three men with developmental disabilities. The deal is as good as done. But not without concern.

"With all the kids around, can we trust these people coming in and out? Nurses, aides, therapists. Everyone is just going to be coming in and out. Increased traffic. It's just, it's not a good placement for this," said Karen Florczykowski, a Showshoe Trail resident.

Some neighbors share her sentiment. And some don't.

 

This is a great song... I think.  It was hard to hear because of all the laughter... from me.  (Seriously, the whole song, out loud laughter.)

The 80's were totally awesome!

Who is she to me?  Why do I seem so interested with her story on this blog?

Yesterday marked the third anniversary of Terri Schiavo's death.  I remember hearing bits and pieces of her story months before she was killed and trying really hard to not hear about it.  To not become aware of all the facts about human euthanasia, and so forth.  I knew what would happen.  I would began to feel passionate again.  And passion hurts.

I had been living a life where I had allowed my heart to become numb to things of the Truth.  But both the threat to Mrs. Schiavo's life and God calling me out of a life of lies about who I was and Who God was coincided.  At the end of Mrs. Schiavo's life, God had me the begining of a place of honesty and healing.

One night, before the courts handed down the final decision about Mrs. Schiavo's fate, I couldn't hold back anymore.  I began to beg God Almighty for Terri's life.  In obedience to God, I conceded to the Truth that human life was sacred, both Terri's and mine, and talked to God in a way I hadn't done in years.  A desperate sort of 'real' prayer.

That prayer changed my life.  I would slowly allow God into my heart in times of desperation after that.  I see life differently now, as something that belongs to God.  Its worth is dependent on God's value of it, not man's judgment of it.

I feel very attached to Terri Schiavo.  And indebted.

I think another reason I feel connected to Mrs. Schiavo, is because I've known people like her, or with disabilities similar to hers, anyway.  In fact, at the time of Mrs. Schiavo's death I had just quit a job working with a man and a woman who also had profound cognitive disabilities, used feeding tubes, etc.  Only they had been born with their disabilities.  So, when I see pictures of videos of Mrs. Schiavo I think of those people I cared for and cared about.

I grieve for Mrs. Schiavo and for our numb-to-the-Truth nation and what we have done.  What will become of us?

Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.  James 1:9-10