Who's living in a BOX?

I had to do some field hours for a SPED class I am taking so I decided to go to a dance Friday night at the Skinner Center. The Skinner Center is a community center for adults living with disabilities and they host a dance every Friday night. I expected to be in a room with maybe 20 or 30 people sitting around tables with some music playing. I walked into a gymnasium of 250+ people with huge speakers blasting club music and no tables. I watched as people 18 up to about their early 80's danced with complete abandonment and not a care in the world. No matter the level of disability they were on the dance floor moving to the beat of the music while I sat on the bleachers with some of the caretakers. My view of people with disabilities had been kind of like a box, there limitations would only allow them to go so far in different aspects of life. While I sat there watching and wanting to dance but was too self-conscious I felt my own "box" becoming smaller. What limitations did I put on myself voluntarily? What was the difference that allowed the people I was observing to be so free and keep me in my seat? They appeared to be living their lives to the max kind of like go hard or go home. What could I accomplish if I lived my own life to the max? I contemplated who was really the one with a disability.........

Road Kill

This summer I took a day trip to The Crossroads, Clarksdale, MS because I love music and Robert Johnson. The Crossroads is where Johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil. Anyway, while I was there I purchased a pre-mixed spice rub called Road Kill at an old fashioned drug store/sundry shop. So tonight's dinner was grilled flank steak skewers marinated with Road Kill and L and P. Back to The Crossroads, I went to a couple of museums and folk art galleries and had lunch at Ground Zero. I finished my trip at a bar next to The Shack Up Inn on an old plantation. Very rustic is too elaborate for what The Shack Up Inn looked like. I am not from the south so I still have very distinct opinions about Mississippi and choose not to go there but I had to go to The Crossroads and am glad I did. I have always thought of Mississippi as some what of a foreign country with a kind of cult atmosphere.

Courage with a Side of Inspiration!

Tonight I took my family, two boys plus one of their friends, out for dinner to Central BBQ. It was delicious as usual--wings and bbq nachos. However, before dinner we went to see the documentary The Memphis 13 showing at the Paradiso. The Memphis 13 were the first 13 African American students to integrate white schools in Memphis 50 years ago yesterday and they were only five and six years old. We got to the theater a little after 5pm for the 6pm showing and the line was out the door. A few hundred people were turned away but we were among the first 75 people in line and got great seats in the row in front of The Memphis 13 and their families. I went through the gamut of emotions during the 40 minute film. I laughed, I cried, I felt shame, anger and I felt inspired. Would I have had the courage to take that first step towards change if I had been in their shoes? Would I have been courageous enough to put one foot in front of the other and walk up a few steps and open the door knowing that I was putting myself and my family in a situation that could result in injury or death? Could I have been as brave as the 13's parents and send my six year old child out into a hostile and unknown environment all for the sake of social change?  I would like to say yes but 50 years ago was a very different time in Memphis. People fought for a voice and paid with their life during this time.  I can't say for sure what I would have done all those years ago but today I want to take that first step wherever it made lead..............