I took this photo earlier today, sitting at a red light in the exit lane of a major American freeway. I was driving back from an appointment to have the stitches removed from my minor skin surgery two weeks ago. I hadn't spoken to a single soul for hours, actually, sunk into self-absorption, the curse -- and blessing -- of the writer. I was listening to Graham Green's novel The End of the Affair, one of my favorite books about love and obsession, its gloom and heaviness and pitched ambivalence a perfect parallel to the sky above. Sometimes it's best to sink into gloom, I thought, just as the man rolled by me in his wheelchair. He held out his hat, his feet shuffled forward, down the line, in my rear view.
Say it with me...
ReplyDeleteGood Lord! I can't even begin to think of how to think about this.
ReplyDeleteAs a wheelchair user, I see great potential for harm here...I also live in a city like LA where everyone drives and the wheelchair and bike deaths are among the highest in the nation because we've designed the roadways for cars, not other forms of wheeled transport.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, there is not enough public transport for people with disabilities generally and this is particularly true for wheelchair users, so people take risks and go places like this person is doing...
It comes down to changing our thinking and being willing to create spaces, roads and sidewalks that accommodate everyone. That comes down to money, which tax payers and legislators do not want to spend...
They'd rather deal with corpses after people get hit...
I hope this person is safe.
heartbreaking
ReplyDelete"I hadn't spoken to a single soul for hours, actually, sunk into self-absorption, the curse -- and blessing -- of the writer." Thank you for writing this - for all of these posts. Though I haven't been blogging much lately, you have expressed what I was feeling (as you often do). I have so much to say/so little to say - so I say nothing. Yet it rattles around in my head, like loose change revolving in the drum of a clothes dryer.
ReplyDeleteHugs to you...
I can feel the weight of that sky on your soul. (and the two word verifications, no shit, were 'flow' and 'glum.' - as Carrie says - no accidents!)
ReplyDeleteAt a loss here
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