Guest guest Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 You're right, Thurza, very appropriate and thank you Dolores. On a lighter note, I've been to Italy a few times but never Holland. Now I long to see windmills and tulips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 Dolores Caron faxed this essay to me on disability and how it can effect your perspective on life. I was going to save it for Winter Synapse, but it is so timely for all of us, I'm pasting it in here today. Thank you Dolores: WELCOME TO HOLLAND I am often asked to describe the experience of living with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this: When you are finally " out on your own " it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip-to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans: the coliseum, the angelo , the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation,-the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, " Welcome to Holland. " " Holland? You say. " What do you mean, Holland? " I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy. " But there has been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place. So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you never would have met. It's just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts. But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say, " Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned. " The pain of that will never, ever, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss. But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very 1ovely things about Holland. – Perl Kingsley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 unfortunately someone felt free to change the subject of this wonderful classic essay to having a disability from the original one of having a handicapped child. The sentiments have much in common but it is intellectually dishonest to do this. If I find the name of the mom who originally wrote this I will post. Lavon A holiday gift to you > > > Dolores Caron faxed this essay to me on disability and how it can > effect your perspective on life. I was going to save it for Winter > Synapse, but it is so timely for all of us, I'm pasting it in here > today. Thank you Dolores: > > WELCOME TO HOLLAND > I am often asked to describe the experience of living with a > disability - > to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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