4:56pm May 4, 2014

Someone in my neurology class is upset that we have to talk about how things can go wrong in the brain.

Because they want to focus on the positive or something, and find it so distressing to think about how things can go wrong, that they might be quitting the course.

If they’re someone who is dealing with too much brain-related stuff in their life and it’s hitting too close to home, that’s the only way I can make this not really hurt to read.

Because otherwise it just reads like “I’m used to not having to think about disabled people, they remind me that I’m vulnerable and mortal and so is everyone I care about, I’d like to be able to keep them at a distance so I don’t have to think about them.”

And that is really unpleasant to hear when you and pretty much everyone close to you has a neurological disability of some kind. And when you know exactly – exactly – the price paid by disabled people, in a society where nondisabled people have a sense of entitlement where they think they have a right not to have to encounter people like you.

Notes: