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2006-08-07 - 12:04 p.m.

Just before we went to Kalamazoo, MI, last week (I�ll write about that later), Nya and I were idly talking and she asked me where I thought we�d be in five years. It took me by surprise and I said I wasn�t really sure. She said I should be sure for the sake of doing this, or at least claim to be. Where would we be living? What jobs would we have? Would we have children?

Hmm. I said that in five years we�d still be in the same apartment we just bought. She�d have become a teacher of the developmentally disabled. She recently realized how much se enjoys working with children with Downs syndrome who visit the Museum of Science and Industry and take her tour.

A few weeks ago, a group of kids with Downs syndrome was taking a tour of the coal mine led by her. On the way down into the mineshaft, Nya says that �cage� elevators like the one they�re in have been used since the 1800s. Of course, the elevator they�re currently using has a feature that wouldn�t have been around in the 1800s. Can anyone guess what it is?

A girl�s hand shot up. �Yes, you!� Nya called on her.
�Ladder!�
�Well, actually the ladder would have in fact been here in the 1800s. Does anyone else want to guess?�
Another kid raised his hand and she called on him.
�Ladder!�

Hmm. The answer she was looking for was the electric lights. �Uhm, well again, the ladder actually would have been here in the 1800s. Any other guesses?�
A third kid raised her hand and Nya called on her.
�Ladder!�
What to say? Nya was quite nonplussed. �Okay, okay.�
Maybe sometimes you should just let things go. �Yes, that�s absolutely right!�

Later they�d moved on to the so-called �1930s room�, which was fitted out to appear as it would have in the 1930s (creepily, not much different from a contemporary mine). Nya had previously explained the fascinating details of coal-mining methodology, including the creation of an �undercut� (a horizontal bore). Today, these are made with an �undercutter� (sort of a giant chainsaw), but of course this didn�t exist yet in the 1930s.

�Can anyone guess how undercuts were made in the 1930s?� Nya was carrying a pickaxe as a little hint.
A hand shot up. �Yes?�
�1930s!�
�Uh. No, I�m sorry. Anyone else?�
She called on another raised hand.
�1920s!�

How befuddling. Another family not associated with the Downs syndrome group was also on the tour. The mother stepped up to help Nya out.
�With a pickaxe?�
Nya conceded that undercuts were in fact dug this way. But it was amusing to imagine the surrealistic way they might have been made by the 1930s.

People with Downs syndrome may sometimes say the unexpected. But they have absolutely no hidden agenda. What you see is what you get. That their simplicity is so pure and open is quite touching. People with disabilities in general are often assumed to be saints, pure of heart. The fact that I�m in a wheelchair must mean that I can have no hate, can hold no grudge (and, on an unrelated side note, am completely libido-free�).

Of course this is a fallacy. However, people with developmental disabilities simply aren�t savvy enough to lie. I�m sure they do in fact have wants and desires that other people would keep hidden and aim to achieve by roundabout manipulation of events. But people with Downs syndrome have doubtless figured out at an early age that they just don�t have the wherewithal for machination (or the energy to keep everything straight). It�s much easier for them to just ask for what they want.

Nya is well aware that working fulltime with people with developmental disabilities involves a lot more than charming stories about randomly answering �ladder!� It also sometimes means cleaning up various bodily fluids � drool and piss and worse. But she feels that the transparency of their intention is something she�d be very happy devoting her time to.

As for me, I said that No Pity Mobility would be a rapidly growing concern by then. I�d also have published my first book. It�ll be a series of personal essays (think Me Talk Pretty One Day), some based on entries from this very blog, recounting my going back to college and ending with graduation and re-meeting Nya shortly thereafter. Possibly I�ll title it after the first entry here, The End of the Tunnel.

And we would have a child. Nya insisted I declare its gender, so I said it was a boy. He�ll be about age three in five years. He�ll be named Isaac Quinn. Nya and I both agree that it would be cool to have an I.Q. Gladstone running around. I was worried about caring for a child as a crip. But people do it all the time.

Sarah, my teacher in fall 2004 who used a wheelchair, was pregnant when she taught our class and has a baby girl now. She�s pointed out that little kids are a lot more accommodating than you�d expect. When small children with a parent in a wheelchair �run away� and come to a staircase, they�ll only climb a few steps to where the parent can still reach them. I think that�s very cute.

� 2006 Geoff Gladstone

(WTF?!? DL is cutting my text short, plus this is just continuing on for way too long, so I�m going to split it into multiple entries�)

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