11:58pm November 22, 2014

“
I don’t look normal. I appear to be quite messed up and a prime candidate for nothing but pity and patronization with a sprinkling of repulsion and fear. I am disguised as a poor thinker.

I am a poster child for synergy. I am designed to aid in making evidence the implicit need for a group effort in order to yield maximum returns.

Synergy is the byproduct of giving. Without synergistic support from normals – say, if I were simply warehoused – I would end up merely consuming resources. With a little help – OK, a lot of help from connected normals – I may add to our collective body of knowledge, perspective, and insights that have receded from the working memory of many.
”

—

-Barb Rentenbach, Synergy

What she calls synergy, I call interdependence. But we mean the same thing and I love her for saying it so clearly. Disabled people, especially severely disabled people, remind the societies that we live in, that we are meant to live in them, and that the only way we can live in them is through them supporting us and us supporting them, and everyone supporting everyone, to become something greater than the sum of all our parts. Because that’s what human societies and communities are at their best, and disabled people are perhaps the best equipped to illustrate how this works, because we need help that people don’t always want to give us. But when given that help, we flourish and contribute. And we always contribute. Always. Even if you can’t see how we contribute. Even if how we contribute isn’t capitalistic enough. Even if how we contribute is to try to dismantle capitalist ideas about people’s worth. But we all contribute, every last one of us. And the more our interdependence is recognized, the better the world is for all of us, disabled and nondisabled alike.