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The following is the complete text of the paper delivered by Mary Jane Owen to the Seventh International Conference of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care to Health Care Workers.
The Wisdom of Human Vulnerability: Disability: the Tie Which Binds Vatican City on November 20, 1992
A learned man of God, John Cardinal O'Connor, offered this guidance: speak from the heart of the experiencing of human vulnerability and wear your disabilities like a mantle about your shoulders. For two decades I have been a participant observer, contemplating our mutual fragility and struggling to comprehend the foolishness of God's insistence on placing our precious souls into such fragile containers. Our efforts to avoid recognition of our frailty speaks loudly of our sense God's choice was an oversight and certainly imprudent. The never-ending search for the Fountain of Eternal Youth tells the story of our dismay. We find it difficult to accept the reality that we face eventual physiological disintegration. This paper suggests that some of the conceptual lenses through which we have traditionally viewed our own and other's vulnerabilities distort and frighten us. The old prescriptions blur our vision of our need to foster interdependency. There is little need for the fear which stalked our ancestors' nightmares. Current medical and rehabilitation technology and techniques can assist our brothers and sisters; sons and daughters; husbands and wives; mothers and fathers to remain interactive and involved with those whom they love and who love them as various functions diminish or are lost. I do not propose an end to our efforts to reduce suffering, only that we approach those challenges with deepened awareness that vulnerability may be an essential component in God's plan for us. The judgment, "I'd rather be dead than disabled," is a painful reminder of the low value placed upon our lives. And this troublesome refrain collides with our views about the sanctity of life. For it fuels those outmoded fears about unwanted dependency which are associated with "infirmities" and moves people to choose death over inconvenient life. Whether a given eugenics campaign endorses euthanasia, infanticide or amniocentesis and abortion, potential colleagues are easy prey to each retelling of the ancient and no longer appropriate terror. The assaults upon life move forward because so few of us are knowledgeable or comfortable enough to speak out positively about the power of the powerless and the potential of those who are disabled. And the pious reinforce this negativity as they mutter, "There, but for the grace of God, go I," failing to recognize the verdict they have leveled against those who live with disabilities and who may still be well within the circle of God's grace and love. Against this sketchy background, let us quickly examine a few conceptual lenses which will allow us to glimpse the potential of those with disabilities: 1. A shifting paradigm replaces the medical model, which sees those with impairments as "patients" whose needs must be met in "special" ways, with a political socioeconomic alternative which conceptualizes the environment as the handicapping factor. 2. A new definition asserts: "Disabilities" are the normal and anticipated outcome of the risks, strains and stresses of the living process itself. Therefore, the condition ceases to be merely an individual tragedy and becomes an expectation within any community. 3. The symbol of the Cross is essential to our Faith, but we are the Easter people who look beyond Calvary to the sunrise of that glorious dawn when the heavy stone blocking our view of His power and grace was rolled away. The old association of disabilities with the suffering Christ can be expanded to include the miracles of rehabilitation as small reminders of His Resurrection. Thus we confirm we are a part of His Body and our souls strive to prove His power. 4. Each time words of pity target those with disabilities the message of inclusion is blunted. Pity limits, shames and never elevates the one toward whom it is directed. It is an unwanted projection of society's fear and discomfort. Respectful compassion and mutual recognition of our shared fragility must replace it if we are to become united as people of God. 5. The fifth lens is pivotal if we are to justify the challenge of this new orientation, for a new prescription calls for a lens which can focus on the power of human vulnerability. Until we recognize this trait as valuable to the health of any organization, we will lack motivation to alter our current patterns of exclusion and separateness. Our vulnerability, which has been encoded into our gene pool, is the catalyst which brings us into community and church with renewed recognition that we need each other and our Lord. When God tied the gift of life to the trait of vulnerability, He may have given us the only incentive which could counter our tendency toward disregard of the rights and value of others. When we see ourselves in our peers, we are joined in a bond which comes from the heart. When we are unaware of or deny our interconnectedness, we move about functioning as if our souls had been placed in high impact plastic bodies. We tend to become alienated and solitary, mistaking independence as the source of power. We take a "Kleenex" approach toward life, justifying its disposal when it becomes less than perfect. It is through synergy and mutual aid that communities are built and maintained. Without the evidence of our own weakness and fragility, many of us would ignore the message of unity and interaction. When Christ called upon us to seek the safety of the fold, the message was of our need, not our ability to thrive in isolation. On a personal level, I saw no value in vulnerability when it began to creep upon me in 1972. I was focused on a professorial title. Everything of importance seemed tied to my visual acuity and photographic memory. I was a brilliant scholar and now my opportunities were slipping away as my vision faded. An academic colleague tried to comfort me with these words, "When Caesar Chavez goes out to organize the migrant farm workers, he always asks for a match although he doesn't smoke." Such a simple request pricked the surface of that bubble of tension which separates us from each other. A modest need was the "excuse" for starting a serious dialogue. I heard no comfort in my friend's words. He was telling me that as a blind woman I'd have to go through life asking for help. That image had nothing to do with my view of power and autonomy. Not surprisingly, I lapsed into self pity, "I'd rather be dead than have to go around asking for help all the time!" But God had many more lessons for me than I could have imagined. And so one day I had to travel alone to another city. I moved through the doorway into the huge bus terminal barely touching the floor with my white cane. I hoped no one would notice I was blind. The trip to the counter was uneventful but then I had to utter the dreaded words. The result was worse than I'd imagined. The man pulled down the microphone and out boomed my embarrassment: "Will someone please help this blind woman catch the bus to Sacramento?" The cavernous space had seemed oddly silent. One knew there were people waiting on the hard benches but no one spoke. Then suddenly all that changed. "Here, let me help you to a seat," someone said. And as we passed the previously silent bodies, there was a buzz of chatter. "I'm going to Placerville to see my grandchildren." And I was greeted with the news of a young man's trip to Quincy to check out the college there. The room which seconds before had been like a tomb of anonymity was transformed into a gathering place for friendly travelers, all sharing a few words to ease the boredom of their wait on a journey to somewhere else. That was not the final lesson. I was a slow learner but with each venture realization grew. When I gave myself permission to ask for help, those around me were given the "excuse" they needed to feel needed. Amazing, but my vulnerabilities were the catalyst which gave others permission to unite: to behave as community. "How come you know so many people?" "Because I have to move out each day, trusting that minor miracles of happenstance will occur again today. When depending upon chance encounters allows for one's freedom to come and go, there are few strangers in one's path." When people move out into their world in such a manner, they are catalysts and confirmations of mutual need. Can there be any doubt we need that fragility which can unite us? For, as a society, we are sickened by alienation and solitude. But until we throw away some of the dysfunctional myths and fears, we will not profit from the richness of God's gift. Too many individuals with disabilities have awaited their turn to worship and to serve their Lord. Too often the Good News has been proclaimed behind barriers we could not overcome and our potential contributions have gone unnoticed. Upon signing the Americans with Disabilities Act, our President told the thousands assembled on the White House lawn that this law was a sledgehammer with which to smash the ancient walls which had blocked 43 million people from fulfilling their dreams and offering their gifts to the nation. That wall of prejudice and fear extends around the globe, separating and segregating. A united resolve to smash the old conceptual lenses which blurred our vision of the power of human vulnerability can destroy the old prejudices. We must constantly remind ourselves that God's gift of life is placed in fragile earthen vessels to a powerful purpose. We have only to recognize and celebrate that reality and it will free us from past fears. For it is our common recognition of interdependency which weaves the threads of our societies together. Each time one of us feels needed and essential to another, the threads of that interaction are reinforced and the fabric which holds us together as Church and as society is powerfully strengthened. There is wisdom in vulnerability and it will bind us together powerfully, if we will only look at the reality with fresh vision. May God bless our mutual crusade. |
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