A Disabled Person Can Function Better Than Many
It seems like another lifetime ago that I was living in Washington, D.C., working in corporate America, waking up at 6 am, rushing with my coffee while I brushed my teeth and put on my pinstripe suit and yellow power tie, and drove to work, arriving before rush hour. Only to be more anxious at the end of the day. That was my life, day in and day out.
After a major heart attack, a burst appendicitis, a dysfunctional vagus nerve (requiring an implant) and a myriad of other health problems, I was put on the corporate sidelines, and, doctors said I would not be working again. I was only forty years old.
So in medical terms, I was disabled. I did not buy the term. I bought a cheap computer and learned all I could about the Internet. I learned how to be a cartoonist and writer. I learned how to outsource and license the manufacturing of my image products. I became an entrepreneur within a few years. But if you ask any social service agency, my disability remains.
Then I built the largest and most visited independent offbeat cartoon site on the Internet with eight stores.
I never was a very good student in my youth, and so I entered a private accredited college online on scholarship. I finished 3 1/2 years. I accomplished something I could never do when I was “abled”. Oh, and I had always failed math when I was “abled”. I aced it with an “A” (and that was advanced math). So much for disabilities.
I revealed to social security of my activities, yet they simply ignored my suggestion that maybe a disability is not a disability at all. If one really wants to do something, it can be done. To them, I would be “disabled” forever, as labels are so simple and easy.
After becoming “disabled” and achieving success nevertheless, I have discussed this with many other so-called disabled persons, and have discovered many similar stories. I am certainly not a hero nor even unique. Some have gone on to accomplish things that are beyond my scope.
So why is it necessary to label people. America seems to love labels. What is so productive about labeling? I have been ten times more productive as a “disabled person” than when I was “fully functional” (pushing and signing papers mostly), in corporate America. It is something to ponder.