Leaving Treadmarkz Across the Universe

by Treadmarkz

My wife and I had our taxes done today, and on the form there was a question which read “Are you or your spouse permanently and totally disabled?” I have added the italic to stress the word “and”. I am permanently disabled, barring a miracle, but I am only paralyzed from the waist down, hardly total. I don’t think anybody with any disability, barring the comatose, would consider themselves totally disabled, and even then, not necessarily permanently. For this reason, I was tempted to check “No”, especially when the tax preparer told me that it wouldn’t make any difference in my refund whether I checked it “yes” or “no”.

But I wondered, why, if it makes no difference, does this question exist? And I doubted very much that the “yes” box was exclusively for the hopelessly comatose. Well, as fate would have it, it did make a difference, in my favor, to check that “Yes” box. So to anyone who is permanently or totally disabled, be sure to set technicalities aside and check “Yes” on this question.

And to the IRS, could we take a look at the wording on that one? It can make a world of difference.

by Treadmarkz

It’s hard to enter into a group of people you’ve never met before and let them know that even though you are in a wheelchair, there is no need for them to see you as any different than the rest of them, especially when you are becoming an adult and trying to settle for certain on what kind of person you are and how you want to be received by others.

When I moved away to college I roomed with three guys I had never met before. We were all just kinda thrown in together. I was the only one in a wheelchair and in the first week, I began to sense the others were a little nervous about how to approach me. One night, we got on the subject of our experiences in high school; friends, parties, getting stupid-drunk and falling down. You know, the usual. I didn’t have much experience there because I only loaded up on pop with my friends back then. But I wanted to fit in with my new roomies. I wanted to break the ice. So the first chance I got, when the conversation stalled, I delivered my line:
“One time, I was so drunk I got up and walked.”
The other three looked at each other, none sure what to say. Was I joking? Was this physically possible? They had no experience with a para before. They had no idea. Finally a grin broke upon my face, and from then on I had them all. We were no longer three guys and the guy in the chair. We were four.
Now, like I said, I just wanted to fit in and I felt that was the coolest way to do so, at the time. But substituting anything else in place of “drunk” would work out too. For instance, you could say something like “It was so cold that I got up and walked around just to get warm.” Not really the same effect, but something. And it’s true that all you really need to do is be yourself, but, anyone else have any lines they’ve used effectively?