“I keep forgetting that even people who know me well don’t know much about my world.”

This simple line really hit home. I often think this on a daily basis - even my closest, most loving, most supportive humans will never know what it is to be in my body in this world every day. And that’s okay, but it is lonely sometimes. Officially getting out the annotation supplies (and self-care supplies) for this read 🩵

“Advocacy is not just a task for charismatic individuals or high-profile community organizers. Advocacy is for all of us; advocacy is a way of life. It is a natural response to the injustices and inequality in the world. While you and I may not have sole responsibility for these inequities, that does not alter its reality.”

-Ki’tay D. Davidson, a proud Black Disabled transman activist. Rest in Peace🕊️

The book is divided into four chapters: being, becoming, doing, and connecting.

The Being chapter is composed by nine essays, all about how disability is deeply rooted in our identity. Being disabled in and of itself becomes a huge part of who you are and how perceive/live your life. It also has implications on how other people perceive/treat you.

But that doesn’t mean that being disabled is all of your identity, as so many times it has been portrayed in popular media. So the essays also touch upon how your disability is transformed by everything else you are.

Being black, Native American, fat, trans, incarcerated, female, etc., can make you more susceptible to:

• Being disabled
• Not having accessible treatment
• Being dismissed by doctors
• Ignoring or downplaying your symptoms
• Not having an inclusive community

This is a great example of why intersectionality is so important and cannot be ignored!!

Another of the topics that is covered in a couple of chapters is the relationship between disability and religion.

”Are you better yet? Get well soon. Race for a cure. Pray for a cure.”

• Liz Moore.

I’m no longer religious but I grew up catholic, so I found the dynamic of “believing God made you this way for a reason and He doesn’t make mistakes” and “Pray for a cure, God is good and corrects the things that are imperfect” to be incredibly interesting and heartbreaking.

Doctors not being able to cure my pain is frustrating, but I can blame science or capitalism, something external. I remember God not answering my prayers when I was younger and feeling like it was my fault for not being good enough, adding shame and guilt to my despair.

I LOVE the fact that this book is challenging the reader to imagine a disabled future, not as a way to panic people into NOT being disabled but as an actual strategy to survive. I never even thought it was possible to imagine a disabled future, ableism has been ingrained into our world view that it had to power to dictate my imagination😣

This literally made me tear up: ”What would a world radically shaped by disabled knowledge, culture, love, and connection be like? Have we ever imagined this, not just as a cautionary tale or a scary story, but as a dream?”

It was so freeing to know I could imagine a radial future, not like I needed Leah’s permission but more like the nudge I needed to allow myself to question the status quo.

I want to be a crip doula!!🥹❤️‍🩹 This is the first time I’ve ever heard of this term, and I love it in the context of imagining a disabled future, if we help disabled people accept themselves and find a community with other disabled folks, we will be able to thrive and share or crip wisdom💖 According to Lakshmi, a crip doula is: a disabled person supporting another disabled person as they do the work of becoming disabled, or differently disabled, or dreaming of a new disabled life/world into being. This actually aligns with the work I want to do as a therapist, I want to work with neurodivergent people to help them find strategies that don’t conflict with their way of perceiving the world. My therapist shared a story of an autistic woman who had been in therapy for 10 years (therapy shouldn’t be a long-term strategy) and after just 1 year of sessions with her, she graduated therapy🥹 I hope I can do the same and positively impact neurodivergent people’s lives.