You just don't understand how hard the able bodied white guy has it, man. You gotta use the small stall in the restroom, and you can't park anywhere *near* the mall. It's torture!
Am I bad for parking at the far end, and feeling smug about the fact that I already went for an 11k run in the morning and now I'm walking all the way from the far corner of the carpark and back with my shopping?
Not at all. Why not enjoy what you can do? I get my parking space and you get to feel smug. Actually, I don't know how it would work, but I often wish that there could be a few accessible parking spaces farther away from the entrance. I need the space so I can get out of my minivan, but being a power wheelchair user its no hardship for me to go clear across a parking lot to get where I'm going. I hate taking those close parking spaces away from folk who really need to be close to the entrance.
at the same time, they took away some close blue spaces at the Univeristy where a friend of mine works so she has to walk farther, which challenges HER disability. she called the folks in charge, and they just said "we are ADA compliant." the end.
why is it always either/or? why not some of both? or lots of both?
meanwhile, I don't know a thing about the discussions you are referring to on alt.poly, but that never kept me from putting my two cents in.
and LOL to those poor privileged people posting above having to pee in the small stall.
wouldn't it be an interesting experiment if a thin person had to navigate through a series of rooms where the clearance space was a minimal as what a fat person faces - like an airplane bathroom where you touch all 4 walls standing up, so wiping is a luxury - the chairs all had arms and were too narrow - the halls were barely passable - etc. - etc. - I wonder if that would change anyone's perception of what it's like to live in a fat person's body?
(I know, this is about disability, I got distracted okay?)
I wonder if that would change anyone's perception of what it's like to live in a fat person's body?
Unfortunately in this social climate the majority of those people would come out of the experiment going "I now have even more fear of fatness than I did before." (Only they don't put it that way, generally.)
That's cool. I admit I hadn't thought of it, but it makes perfect sense that there are people who need large spaces but don't want to take the spaces close to the entrance from people who need them more. I mean, this is related to why I began parking further away, but like I said, it was easy to become smug about it, and I wondered why other (exercising) people didn't think of it that way. And heck, there are enough non-exercising people who would actually benefit from parking further away. Not the ones that's usually pointed out to, I notice.
...and just to be really picky (and therefore this isn't meant to take anything away from what you just said), but a person who may not opt to walk a longer distance between parking place to destination may well be an exercising person, but that isn't the way they get their exercise.
e.g., my disability prevents me from walking long distances, but I get in the pool 2-3 times a week for a serious work-out, this I identify as an exercising person.
Thanks. Yes, my thinking was definitely revolving around people who exercised, and who could therefore easily walk longer distances because of the type of exercise and type of person they were.
If you swim regularly, and tell me you can't walk far, I'll take your word for it. Much more so than the many "normal" people I know who moan about having to walk from the far end of the carpark, who would benefit in many ways from a daily half-hour walk.
wow. I was prepared to write a long tretise about being differently abled, and then I re-read your second paragraph and realized I was misunderstanding your words. my own defensiveness about not being able to walk these days comes from my sense of loss about having the disability get worse in the last year. I still feel cautious, however, in recommending any one form of movement, as we are each inclined to find different things to do for exercise (or not), for fitness (whatever that means) and certainly for pleasure, which I think movement should lead to, if possible.
meanwhile, on an unrelated note, I was in Brisbane (or thru Brisbane) in September of 2006, on my way to and from Noosa, as I'd come from California to Sydney and then Melbourne, where I have a cousin. We had a wonderful time in Noosa being beach bums and tourists (she said she felt like there were more people there from Melb. than anywhere). even at that time of the year, Queensland was too warm for me (hell, Sydney got pretty warm that month), but overall I really loved being in Oz. I could move to Melbourne in a heartbeat.
I'm really sorry about your problems in the last year. I hope you are able to find some kind of peace, or at least acceptance of any irreversible changes.
But don't get me started on my exercise preaching (I only have experience when there are no apparent physical issues): what kind of movement makes you happy? with other people or alone? repetitive or varied? power, endurance, balance or coordination? And somehow in all that trying to suggest things for them to try they will be more likely to stick to.
I'm hoping that the newer computer games (Dance Dance Revolution and Wii Fitness in particular) will lead to new ways of thinking about movement, and hopefully there will be more options for everyone.
The thing I find silly is when people drive their cars to the gym and take the elevator upstairs, then use the treadmill and stepping machine in the gym. Uh...
Yes, I think my current running pattern (all routes must start and end at my front door) is perhaps a slight overreaction to that kind of behaviour. It should be okay for me to just sometimes drive to a different place and try running there, but I can't seem to shake it. So my response to the places that look like they'd be cool to run around more but are right at the limits of where I can run to in the first place is "I need to get back to riding my bicycle!"
Awww, that's not the roughest part. The roughest part (she said, having just returned from an intense 6-day conference on diversity) is that those poor white guys just don't have any experience feeling uncomfortable, and they're not good at it, so we have to be really, really gentle with them ...
Does that mean, when I lose patience with the kind, gentle approach with the pathetic white guys (poor means something else to me), and snark at them, I'm actually helping them gain experience at discomfort?
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stonebender
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-01 05:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-01 05:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-01 11:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-01 06:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-01 09:58 pm (UTC)why is it always either/or? why not some of both? or lots of both?
meanwhile, I don't know a thing about the discussions you are referring to on alt.poly, but that never kept me from putting my two cents in.
and LOL to those poor privileged people posting above having to pee in the small stall.
wouldn't it be an interesting experiment if a thin person had to navigate through a series of rooms where the clearance space was a minimal as what a fat person faces - like an airplane bathroom where you touch all 4 walls standing up, so wiping is a luxury - the chairs all had arms and were too narrow - the halls were barely passable - etc. - etc. - I wonder if that would change anyone's perception of what it's like to live in a fat person's body?
(I know, this is about disability, I got distracted okay?)
oh, and LOL the neurologist referral as well.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-02 07:56 am (UTC)Unfortunately in this social climate the majority of those people would come out of the experiment going "I now have even more fear of fatness than I did before." (Only they don't put it that way, generally.)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-01 11:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-04 02:22 am (UTC)e.g., my disability prevents me from walking long distances, but I get in the pool 2-3 times a week for a serious work-out, this I identify as an exercising person.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-04 03:19 am (UTC)If you swim regularly, and tell me you can't walk far, I'll take your word for it. Much more so than the many "normal" people I know who moan about having to walk from the far end of the carpark, who would benefit in many ways from a daily half-hour walk.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-04 04:31 am (UTC)meanwhile, on an unrelated note, I was in Brisbane (or thru Brisbane) in September of 2006, on my way to and from Noosa, as I'd come from California to Sydney and then Melbourne, where I have a cousin. We had a wonderful time in Noosa being beach bums and tourists (she said she felt like there were more people there from Melb. than anywhere). even at that time of the year, Queensland was too warm for me (hell, Sydney got pretty warm that month), but overall I really loved being in Oz. I could move to Melbourne in a heartbeat.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-04 07:07 am (UTC)But don't get me started on my exercise preaching (I only have experience when there are no apparent physical issues): what kind of movement makes you happy? with other people or alone? repetitive or varied? power, endurance, balance or coordination? And somehow in all that trying to suggest things for them to try they will be more likely to stick to.
I'm hoping that the newer computer games (Dance Dance Revolution and Wii Fitness in particular) will lead to new ways of thinking about movement, and hopefully there will be more options for everyone.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-23 11:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-23 11:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-02 05:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-04 03:21 am (UTC)