Meet my friend, Kerri Adamic.
Sometimes, you need to see hard things to wake you up to how great your life really is.
@savagetobi posted an article today that you can find here:
@savagetobi/who-said-begging-to-survive-is-an-option
This topic is near and dear to me. I know Kerri Adamic: Author of Doubt Your Doubts!: The Essential Guide to Overcoming Life's Challenges And Achieving Your Full Potential.
image is from Amazon. As part of their affiliate program, I believe they allow me to share images like that above in my contract.
When I lived near Kerri, I did not know much about her, but the more I saw her, the more I wanted to learn about her. She would come to my church and sit in her wheelchair listening to what was going on. I would see her interact with kids in the way she knew how. Her mother always sat near and she had a pad on her lap that helped her talk.
After months of attending at her location, I soon learned that she had a device that she could type on to speak for her. She can't speak for herself. She can cry. She can laugh, and she can drool, but other than those 3 things, there isn't much perceptibility anyone can get from her without her machine...though I have also since learned that she does "Sky spelling" where she writes letters in the sky.
Kerri is not dumb in regard to her intelligence. She is dumb in that she cannot speak. Her machine is a modern miracle to help her. She is married and lives very independently from my observations, though she does depend on nurses to come and assist her as one might expect. She has a motorized wheelchair that she uses to drive down the sidewalk to get to and from the store/church.
Why do I bring her up? I see people like this:
unsplash image
or this:
unsplash image
I cringe.
Now, I know good and well that Kerri is taken care of using programs like disability payments from the state to live in a nice condo unit where she receives the treatments she needs, but she does not live like a victim. Check her out. She wrote a book at the 10-12th grade reading level. It's over 100 pages long. She wrote it, one tap of her mishappen hand's tap at a time. The picture of the person directly above this paragraph has a sign that says, "Happy Happy Holidays. Today is my 26 B-Day"
I don't know if that picture was staged or if it was legitimate. What I do see is a young man who is capable of raising his hands and able to grasp with them. He can sit up. He can presumably see the person in front of him and likely hear her. There are so many ways that you can make money to make ends meet if you can perform those things.
It is really hard for me to give to someone who has become a victim to their situation. As an example, I often have bottles in my car, plastic bottles, that when I see someone digging through the trash can at my gas station, I'll give that person ALL of my plastic bottles...which may result in about $1 at the recylcler (my car doesn't look that bad...I don't have much else in my car but these bottles...). Why? I do this because if they're working for their wages, I should be willing to give to someone who is putting in the work. I do not give to someone standing at a street corner. If they can stand there for hours or sit there for hours and get up on their own power to move somewhere else, there are ways to monetize that. It was just a few years ago people stood out with signs, waving them in crazy ways to earn $15/hour. That's enough to buy a day's worth of groceries in one hour, depending on how wise you are with your shopping and what foods you eat. Instead, they choose to put their hand out and tax the people's charity.
I'd much rather buy a book, give it a 5 star rating, and feed the author who is actually doing something with their disability-teaching others who to see the bright side of things and not be a victim.
Please buy her book. Read it. Absorb it. Let it touch you.
I did use an affiliate link to her book on Amazon. If you'd rather not use my link, search for the book and make sure you buy a copy. Get your friends to do the same, in my opinion! Continue to show her, she's a victor!