The Bicycle - A Story

I drafted this story in December. Its purpose is to illustrate how inclusion fundamentally arises from the contributions people are making, and not from designing a “better” world that someday, maybe we will let them be part of.

In subsequent blogs I will explain the three levels of inclusion that I hope are illustrated herein. This is very much a draft. Likely I will find that I need to rewrite parts of this story as we work on it together.

The Bicycle

INTRODUCTION
Dad – David – is a city bureaucrat and a citizen advocate for a voiceless young man in a state run nursing home – Chris

Chris enjoys collecting small plastic toys

The family consists of wife - Joan, David and 3 kids – Joe is 10, burly, egocentric and greedy

They regularly attend a church with a social conscience.

Only David has met Chris

BEGINNING
David, disturbed by the materialism of Christmas, decides to follow Chris’ example of enjoying simple pleasures. This idea turns out to be a hard sell with the family, especially Joe who has his heart set on a specific bicycle

CHRISTMAS
As their extended family gathers, Joan is cooking an extra fabulous dinner since she has extra time because she has not had to buy and wrap many gifts. Each person gives each person a simple gift, costing 0 to 5 dollars, chosen with that person’s capacities and interests in mind.

As the thoughtfulness and creativity emerge, people become more and more excited. They become uncharacteristically interested in each other’s gifts, and appreciative of the newly enjoyable interaction – except grumpy Joe.

Every one of Joe’s gifts is a coin or bill, and as time passes others sureptiously pass him some cash. By the end of the day he has accumulated $21.53. Joe is confused. He loves the money and the attention but it’s no where near enough for a bicycle. Nor does he actually want to be thought of as only a money grubber.

After dinner, to Joan’s shock, Joe offers to help with the dishes.

Post Christmas
Filled with curiousity about Joe’s confusion, David takes opportunities to talk to him and also invites him to his next visit with Chris. At the visit Joe is uncharacteristically silent and visibly uncomfortable, but offers to come on the next visit too. In the meantime he gets excited by discussions about how to turn his $21.53 into enough for a bicycle.

Early in February Joan and David are both shocked to discover that their credit cards have 0 balances!

Pre Spring Break
Through a series of small investments and odd jobs, strong arming everyone who was present at Christmas dinner, Joe has raised his cash to $60.79. On the way to a visit to Chris, Joe and David see the exact bicycle in a going out of business sale and buy it on the spot for $49.99. Joe proudly shows it off to Chris, riding it around and around the room. Chris beams with joy.

After Spring Break
Guys at school tease Joe about the time he spending with Chris. Joe is confused and starts a fist fight where another child ends up with a broken arm.

Fortunately the school uses restorative justice instead of zero tolerance and Joan, Joe and David find themselves facing the injured child, his parents and several other children plus school officials at a gathering led by a justice oriented listener. As each person explains the incident and its impact on them it emerges how frightening teasing is to the children and how no one seems to know how to deal with it. Joe, near tears, and talking mainly to his parents, explains how he doesn’t know how to be both a person who likes and respects Chris and a regular boy who makes fun of “gays” and “retards”.

No one has ever seen Joe be so vulnerable and articulate.

The resolution of the meeting includes a decision to bring Chris to the school and have Joe and his classmates make a presentation about inclusion.

Next Christmas
The nursing home made less profit this year, so the executives decide to cut costs by closing it and laying off staff for the holidays. Chris has no place to go and will be permanently moved to a bigger facility in North Carolina, two states away. Instead the church and several people connected to the school organize a ten day vacation for Chris at the church’s retreat house, with paid and volunteer helpers, and a return to the same nursing home when it reopens. All goes well and Chris goes to Joan’ and David’s for Christmas dinner. Joe does not receive even one quarter and he doesn’t seem to even notice the gifts he does get because he is too busy helping Chris open his plastic toys and eat his pureed ham and turkey dinner.

When Joe helps take Chris back to the nursing home on Jan. 3, he quietly notices Chris longingly looking at the top drawer of his dressing table. Joe peeks into the drawers and he has an insight.

Joe takes his remaining $10 from last year’s bicycle fund and, working with the shop teacher and his classmates, he constructs a wall hung display cabinet and some picture frames. A few weeks later the entire class participates in putting Chris’ bedraggled family pictures back together with clear tape and into beautiful, simple frames, and in organizing the plastic toys Chris chooses by eye blinks into the locked display cabinet. The most prominent toy is the one Joe gave Chris for Christmas – a happy clown on a bicycle.

The End

Judith