October 20 Disabilities Awareness Item

Dear Friends

Today is my brother’s birthday. Some of my brother’s story is disability, although I am not sure how he identifies about the topic and a whole list of experiences. Some of his story is mental illness and substance abuse. Some of his story is someone who loves mountains and plants, listens well when he wants to, and still works with his faith. If you really must click away without reading, please think of all that and think Happy Birthday Brother before you go.

If you are feeling a bit hardier, this year we are already grateful that:

--My brother borrowed someone’s cell phone and called Mom recently. He called in the morning when he is more likely to be lucid and they talked for about half an hour. My brother has some recurring conversation themes. When he is lucid he can also talk about dreams and aspirations, some of which almost sound reasonable and doable. Well current themes involve a Cadillac, a large tract of land somewhere and possibly study of medicine, so maybe doable is too strong a word.

--My brother still has his job at the pizza dough plant. His hours took kind of a hit in the recession and he made a lateral move away from swing shift manager for the same hourly wage but he is still hanging in there. The job at the pizza dough plant is part of one triumph: my brother was on social security disability for a long time because of a rare rheumatological condition diagnosed shortly after high school, when he was just starting to get on his feet and find his way. The condition is so rare that the doctor he saw in Seattle had three patients from the whole NW with his exact condition. The condition most often at some point goes into remission. That happened with my brother years later than usual. As a result of that and of the steady job at the pizza dough plant, my brother did something pretty rare: he worked himself off of Social Security disability and frequently talks proudly about that even though things like health insurance remain a big pain in the neck.

--My brother has had stable housing for several years. It’s not lavish and he complains from time to time but it’s a big improvement over a long previous spell. I had to kick him out of my household twice. I had to help my mother kick him out of her household. Finally, at some point I got sheepish email from a family friend, something like “I haven’t seen your brother lately but I think he might be living in my shrubbery.” It was January—in Montana. I really could not imagine NOT knowing for sure if someone was living in one’s shrubbery though I could imagine this friend being reluctant to confront anyone. Awhile later, I had a “by the way….” Conversation with a social worker I had called about something else and she got the picture IMMEDIATELY. Awhile later I got email from the friend, something along the lines of “you didn’t have to sic a social worker on me but thanks.” Shortly after that, I heard from my brother and he finally got re-established about housing. My brother fancies himself a bit of a mountain man and would not necessarily mind a certain amount of sleeping out, but somewhere after that my brother talked about one time when someone gave him a set of long underwear that he said probably saved his life for awhile.

--My brother sometimes talks about quitting drinking but in the meantime he is a booze snob so he cannot afford to drink as much as if he had less pretentious drinking tastes.

--My brother seems to be free of any other substance abuse besides cigarettes and alcohol. This is really good for cutting back on paranoid hallucinations caused by wind moving in trees or intrusive appearances of space aliens trying to control his mind through the pressure relief shunts in his eyes.

--Maybe the pressure relief shunts really are a new way of communicating with space aliens, especially when combined with the electronic theft prevention system at WalMart. The more important point: something about my brother’s health regimen has so far gotten him several birthdays past the ones near where my dad and I started having detached retinas. Knock on wood. Maybe thank the space aliens?

--One of my brother’s conversational threads is about a long list of enemies. The enemies list starts from some circumstances and my sister and I together had an “Oh crap” moment during one of our “yucky topic good conversation” moments recently about the beginning point of my brother’s enemies list. Anyway, the good news is that despite the march of time and many other opportunities others might find to acquire new enemies, my brother’s enemies list seems to be stable and not growing.

Other items vaguely topical to my brother that might be more fun to read:
This post from my blog is about all kinds of things. The main point as far as my brother: I had some OW experiences because of early eye issues. My brother’s experiences at the same points were more like OW! OW! OW! We also wound up sharing a hospital room after later surgeries. My brother lgot sicker from the anesthetic than I did. He liked to drink a lot of Seven Up and watch more cowboy movies than Mom would permit at home for a whole month. I have no idea whether he even remembers the part about Mom reading to us about the Boxcar children.
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2010/05/my-mother-my-mentor.html


Here is an inspiring item about a legally blind kid playing baseball. I have been seasoning a whole disabilities awareness rant about sports but maybe it is enough to say my brother found it a drag to have to keep telling football coaches that no, despite being tall, my brother is not a good candidate for football or baseball. In fact, this problem kept him from being able to do anything enough to acquire skills but did not save either him or me from having to cope with needing the very same skills in Phys Ed.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/10/doug-wells-legally-blind-_n_1003306.html?1318259835&ncid=webmail3



A blog post from Jim Wallis about standing up to bullies. People get bullied because of all kinds of things that set them apart. I appreciate this post’s comments about sexual orientation but I also appreciate the post’s call for others to stand up to bullies too. Probably I could also dig up some depressing statistics about kids with disabilities being also targets of bullying.
http://blog.sojo.net/2011/10/19/standing-up-to-bullies-on-spirit-day-what-would-jesus-do/


But this is enough for now. Happy Birthday Brother.

In the Light

(RantWoman)