A Few More Steps along This Trail

By Sean Dineen

Summertime my friends, is more than here and with it our chance to reflect.

We are moving towards, a victory, a goal which sometimes seems further out of reach, the harder we work.    All of you have had to reach into the depths of yourselves, your mind, your heart, and your soul, in order to say to this world, I have a right to make my own decisions.

As we go along in our daily lives, this is something which we must reaffirm, over and over again, otherwise our lives become, an endless, cycle of trying to win over experts, towards  giving us permission for everything we want to do.     It is important to be fair, there is a certain amount of compromise and give and take which is necessary to avoid becoming self pitying and spoiled.   Also, it’s necessary to consider the wishes and needs of other people; we are studying or working with, living with or getting help from.  That is true, but what I am talking about my friends, goes beyond kindness, compromise or altruism.   Some within the rehab establishment seek power, see themselves as possessing the right to control the daily lives of any person with a disability with which they come in contact.     It’s very insidious sometimes.

When my friend, Karen Lynn, who moved heaven and earth, to get an education, is denied, create for her work, told to sit home and watch TV, when experts tell me that the doctorate I long to get, and have sweated for for seven years is unrealistic, and I should go away, when all of you, get metaphorically put in the corner, and patted on the psyche, if not the head, that is precisely what I am talking about.    

The Almighty has blessed us all, with talents, and abilities, just as everyone else has been blessed.    We have both the right and responsibility to use and develop those talents.

It is obscene, that so many of us, must not only fight physical battles, but must engage against an attitude which says, our dreams only matter, if the self anointed, leaders of society, say they do.

None of us, owes the world an apology for dreaming, for wanting and working with everything we have, to make something happen.   The details of what it is, are a different as stars in the sky, but, the battle we are all fighting is the same.   To go forward, till absolute victory.

All of you are on the front lines of this battle, and its time the world knew it.

I wrote this article, because I wanted everyone to know, what you have all meant to me.

It’s been a challenging, pun intended, last few years, as I have kept this doctorate going, road heard on history students, and mourned as many I loved took their place with God,

Every time, it got too much, when I was tempted, to say it just isn’t worth it, everyone of you, whether you knew it or not sustained me.      As I hope in my own small way, I might be able to, if any of you need me.   I would like also to propose a challenge.

Let any one of my fellow readers, here tell something about some achievement of there’s something they are so proud of themselves for.     It doesn’t matter what it is, just tell us.

Let us all see, all of the greatness within the group, and celebrate it together.