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
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Set Back Again
I certainly get tired of running into these long gaps of time. It has been so many days since I have had the opportunity to write a new message on this blog. For me this is another reason why I am inviting people to post messages themselves. There are too many days that go by with no new information or inspiration!
Almost two weeks ago now I woke up to realize that I had a "perfect" opportunity to go back to Toronto and be present for some very important gatherings. SO I collected my frequent flyer points, and Gabor and I flew back to Toronto and Barrie last Friday and returned to Atlanta yesterday.
I won't drag on about the grueling details of aborted flights, having my wheelchair trashed twice by the airlines, bitter cold and white-out driving conditions, and very very very late nights. Suffice it to say that the experience was both worthwhile and nerve-stretching grueling for both Gabor and I.
We stayed at Aki Feseheye's place, and were warmly welcomed and supported. In addition, Katie and others helped Gabor get a well deserved break. I fit in as many friends as possible and held a circle meeting at my father's residence. It was so good to see him and them again. I took a quick visit to my cat's, and on seeing how much they love their new home and Ally their new mom, I gave them to Ally. It's a match made in Heaven. But I will always miss them.
The first thing that was accomplished was that I attended the Camphill Communities of Ontario board meeting, said goodbye to my God Daughter Annie Green as she moves back to a new life sharing community in Colorado, and took another step toward moving into Sophia Creek. I felt that My beloved Camphill friends needed my physical presence so that plans for my residence in the community would not once again go on the back burner. The severe doldrums of a Canadian winter can make you feel like very little is possible. It was good for us to rekindle the vision of my full membership in this wonderful gathering.
On a completely related mission I gathered my circle and we strategized about having my transfer payment agency see their way clear to pay Gabor and to support me in my move to Barrie. This required a meeting with a committee on that board. I think we made some progress, and we will have a better sense of that in about a month. It was good to have the full support of my circle. It was also good to realize that my taking a stand to do my life and work in a way that allows me to freely reach out to the world is important not just for me but for everyone else who uses personal assistance.
I also got to reconnect with my Toronto Wisdom Community, and realize how much I am appreciated and missed. I slipped in a meeting with my doctor and got myself on a new medication which seems to finally be lessening my bronchial symptoms. Last but not least, I got to reconnect with Ray Warren and the Ancilla Foundation. I realized that our efforts to create an economic support to building inclusion are finally beginning to take hold.
We had to come back to Atlanta rather quickly because Gabor is registered in the Landmark Advanced Course this weekend. It warms my heart to realize that he takes to this form of empowerment pretty much the same as I do. In a way I was sorry to leave Toronto so quickly, but at the same time, our work in Georgia is really just beginning.
On the flight back, my wheelchair was dropped by the baggage handlers and the damage was substantial. This is actually being typed by Lara Howell as I am lying in bed.
So once again, huge barriers to keeping up with the work have emerged. This leaves me a little discouraged and certainly very tired. But at the same time, I know that we will get through this and even while it is happening, the work will continue.
In the very near future, hopefully by mid-February, David, Lara, Gabor and I will be hard at work on an Inclusion, School-based project that will engage a wide variety of kids, teenagers, and faculty members. My hope is that in my next blog message I will be able to give you details of this potentially far-reaching initiative. It will make all the obstacles seem trivial relative to its huge potential.
In the meantime, it is time for a well deserved good-night's rest.
Judith
Almost two weeks ago now I woke up to realize that I had a "perfect" opportunity to go back to Toronto and be present for some very important gatherings. SO I collected my frequent flyer points, and Gabor and I flew back to Toronto and Barrie last Friday and returned to Atlanta yesterday.
I won't drag on about the grueling details of aborted flights, having my wheelchair trashed twice by the airlines, bitter cold and white-out driving conditions, and very very very late nights. Suffice it to say that the experience was both worthwhile and nerve-stretching grueling for both Gabor and I.
We stayed at Aki Feseheye's place, and were warmly welcomed and supported. In addition, Katie and others helped Gabor get a well deserved break. I fit in as many friends as possible and held a circle meeting at my father's residence. It was so good to see him and them again. I took a quick visit to my cat's, and on seeing how much they love their new home and Ally their new mom, I gave them to Ally. It's a match made in Heaven. But I will always miss them.
The first thing that was accomplished was that I attended the Camphill Communities of Ontario board meeting, said goodbye to my God Daughter Annie Green as she moves back to a new life sharing community in Colorado, and took another step toward moving into Sophia Creek. I felt that My beloved Camphill friends needed my physical presence so that plans for my residence in the community would not once again go on the back burner. The severe doldrums of a Canadian winter can make you feel like very little is possible. It was good for us to rekindle the vision of my full membership in this wonderful gathering.
On a completely related mission I gathered my circle and we strategized about having my transfer payment agency see their way clear to pay Gabor and to support me in my move to Barrie. This required a meeting with a committee on that board. I think we made some progress, and we will have a better sense of that in about a month. It was good to have the full support of my circle. It was also good to realize that my taking a stand to do my life and work in a way that allows me to freely reach out to the world is important not just for me but for everyone else who uses personal assistance.
I also got to reconnect with my Toronto Wisdom Community, and realize how much I am appreciated and missed. I slipped in a meeting with my doctor and got myself on a new medication which seems to finally be lessening my bronchial symptoms. Last but not least, I got to reconnect with Ray Warren and the Ancilla Foundation. I realized that our efforts to create an economic support to building inclusion are finally beginning to take hold.
We had to come back to Atlanta rather quickly because Gabor is registered in the Landmark Advanced Course this weekend. It warms my heart to realize that he takes to this form of empowerment pretty much the same as I do. In a way I was sorry to leave Toronto so quickly, but at the same time, our work in Georgia is really just beginning.
On the flight back, my wheelchair was dropped by the baggage handlers and the damage was substantial. This is actually being typed by Lara Howell as I am lying in bed.
So once again, huge barriers to keeping up with the work have emerged. This leaves me a little discouraged and certainly very tired. But at the same time, I know that we will get through this and even while it is happening, the work will continue.
In the very near future, hopefully by mid-February, David, Lara, Gabor and I will be hard at work on an Inclusion, School-based project that will engage a wide variety of kids, teenagers, and faculty members. My hope is that in my next blog message I will be able to give you details of this potentially far-reaching initiative. It will make all the obstacles seem trivial relative to its huge potential.
In the meantime, it is time for a well deserved good-night's rest.
Judith
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Things that Go “Clunk”
Yesterday, Barack Hussein Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States.
Today I began to breathe normally for the first time in six weeks.
Monday I woke up to: “I ought to go back to Toronto for the Allocations Committee Meeting” of the agency that my personal assistance is attached to.
Today all the important pieces – reasonable flights, places to stay, insurance on and availability of the Dodge, etc. came together and Gabor and I will be in Camphill and Toronto from Friday night to Wednesday afternoon, meeting with my circle, and firming up arrangements to create a home base at Camphill Sophia Creek.
For three months the World Peace through Inclusion Tour has worked hard to (re)establish connection and energy so that inclusion work can flourish in this area with such rich potential.
Today, at dinner with the diversity team of the Savannah Country Day School, and based on previous connections with AWOL, Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy, the Southern Collective for Inclusive Citizenship, and the First Presbyterian Church of Savannah, a multi-year project was drafted.
It’s like a slipping clutch engaged.
Judith
Today I began to breathe normally for the first time in six weeks.
Monday I woke up to: “I ought to go back to Toronto for the Allocations Committee Meeting” of the agency that my personal assistance is attached to.
Today all the important pieces – reasonable flights, places to stay, insurance on and availability of the Dodge, etc. came together and Gabor and I will be in Camphill and Toronto from Friday night to Wednesday afternoon, meeting with my circle, and firming up arrangements to create a home base at Camphill Sophia Creek.
For three months the World Peace through Inclusion Tour has worked hard to (re)establish connection and energy so that inclusion work can flourish in this area with such rich potential.
Today, at dinner with the diversity team of the Savannah Country Day School, and based on previous connections with AWOL, Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy, the Southern Collective for Inclusive Citizenship, and the First Presbyterian Church of Savannah, a multi-year project was drafted.
It’s like a slipping clutch engaged.
Judith
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Describing Inclusion
Inclusion
My getting better continues at a slow, uneven pace. Yesterday Gabor, David and I participated in a Citizen Advocacy luncheon – I didn’t eat anything. The talk and discussion went very well. We got our best video yet. Tomorrow I will be doing an open mike night at the Sentient Bean, along with a group named AWOL – a group aimed at using e-technology to get kids job skills, cash and positive entry to the economic aspects of their world.
In between I have been in bed mainly, still coughing but less, figuring out strategies to deal with chronic acid reflux and eating baby sized meals. It looks like we beat this one too.
As I have had lots of time to reflect, both consciously and in dream-like states. I have evolved a strategy for communicating the peace growing power of inclusion. I intend to share this strategy in the blog.
Tonight I want to share a 3 stage description of inclusion I have been working with. In later blogs, in the near future, I will share some stories that wrap around this.
Of course the concept “inclusion” is not related only to people who are labeled disabled. When women were first demanding and implementing their rights and abilities to participate in political and economic life, the social results were inclusion. When people from non-English or French speaking parts of the world move into Toronto, find their way in cultural, spiritual and economic ways in the city, and broadly influence the opportunities of that city, that is also inclusion.
In the past twenty years and more a great deal has been written and said about inclusion. I have sat on two consulting committees about this subject and have been amazed at how much can be said, written and researched. I am not one to favour making things more complex. Complex talk is one strategy that excludes many people who have disability labels. I have been working on ways to talk about how peace shows up at different stages of inclusion. I want to begin sharing more of this work here.
Let me know how the following writing strikes you.
It can be said that one person includes another. An example would be when a women invites a new friend who lives in a nursing home to regularly attend church with her. It can also be said that an organization includes individuals, as when a school makes all its classrooms welcoming to children who learn in non-academic ways. It can also be said that one group includes another, as when an “all white” baseball league and an “all black” baseball league become just a baseball league.
When people first talk about inclusion they usually mean something like: “You are welcome to be in my space but I will make no changes in my world because you showed up. You must act as if you are just like me, or leave.” When women first worked where men did, and when people in wheelchairs first went to university they often struggled to find a restroom they could use at work.
As inclusion progresses, the “including” person or group gets to the point where they recognize that changes in structure and policy would assist the “included” person or group to participate more effectively. This is the stage of “reasonable accommodation”. Ramps are built, ESL classes emerge and targeted housing subsidies are funded. The included are still mainly expected to fit in, keep up, and stop at “their level”.
The most creative and effective stage of inclusion is reached when everyone realizes that we are not all the same and that we don’t have to be. It is the stage when there is no longer anything to be “included into”. All sides recognize that their unique differences are real and are also opportunities for each other’s growth and enjoyment. Each is ready to explore what can be let go of and what can be enhanced so that a new world that works for all can be created. As an example, where classrooms have been inclusive at this level methods of teaching have been evolved, students have taken on more intimate and respectful roles and relationships among themselves and with their teachers, and the daily activities and interests have shifted across entire school boards.
It would be nice to think this progression came easily. In reality it is hard won in most cases, with many virtual and actual battles fought to keep the dialogue going.
Although I am primarily a champion of the most creative level of inclusion, greater peace can show up at all levels. I will write about this in subsequent entries.
Judith
My getting better continues at a slow, uneven pace. Yesterday Gabor, David and I participated in a Citizen Advocacy luncheon – I didn’t eat anything. The talk and discussion went very well. We got our best video yet. Tomorrow I will be doing an open mike night at the Sentient Bean, along with a group named AWOL – a group aimed at using e-technology to get kids job skills, cash and positive entry to the economic aspects of their world.
In between I have been in bed mainly, still coughing but less, figuring out strategies to deal with chronic acid reflux and eating baby sized meals. It looks like we beat this one too.
As I have had lots of time to reflect, both consciously and in dream-like states. I have evolved a strategy for communicating the peace growing power of inclusion. I intend to share this strategy in the blog.
Tonight I want to share a 3 stage description of inclusion I have been working with. In later blogs, in the near future, I will share some stories that wrap around this.
Of course the concept “inclusion” is not related only to people who are labeled disabled. When women were first demanding and implementing their rights and abilities to participate in political and economic life, the social results were inclusion. When people from non-English or French speaking parts of the world move into Toronto, find their way in cultural, spiritual and economic ways in the city, and broadly influence the opportunities of that city, that is also inclusion.
In the past twenty years and more a great deal has been written and said about inclusion. I have sat on two consulting committees about this subject and have been amazed at how much can be said, written and researched. I am not one to favour making things more complex. Complex talk is one strategy that excludes many people who have disability labels. I have been working on ways to talk about how peace shows up at different stages of inclusion. I want to begin sharing more of this work here.
Let me know how the following writing strikes you.
It can be said that one person includes another. An example would be when a women invites a new friend who lives in a nursing home to regularly attend church with her. It can also be said that an organization includes individuals, as when a school makes all its classrooms welcoming to children who learn in non-academic ways. It can also be said that one group includes another, as when an “all white” baseball league and an “all black” baseball league become just a baseball league.
When people first talk about inclusion they usually mean something like: “You are welcome to be in my space but I will make no changes in my world because you showed up. You must act as if you are just like me, or leave.” When women first worked where men did, and when people in wheelchairs first went to university they often struggled to find a restroom they could use at work.
As inclusion progresses, the “including” person or group gets to the point where they recognize that changes in structure and policy would assist the “included” person or group to participate more effectively. This is the stage of “reasonable accommodation”. Ramps are built, ESL classes emerge and targeted housing subsidies are funded. The included are still mainly expected to fit in, keep up, and stop at “their level”.
The most creative and effective stage of inclusion is reached when everyone realizes that we are not all the same and that we don’t have to be. It is the stage when there is no longer anything to be “included into”. All sides recognize that their unique differences are real and are also opportunities for each other’s growth and enjoyment. Each is ready to explore what can be let go of and what can be enhanced so that a new world that works for all can be created. As an example, where classrooms have been inclusive at this level methods of teaching have been evolved, students have taken on more intimate and respectful roles and relationships among themselves and with their teachers, and the daily activities and interests have shifted across entire school boards.
It would be nice to think this progression came easily. In reality it is hard won in most cases, with many virtual and actual battles fought to keep the dialogue going.
Although I am primarily a champion of the most creative level of inclusion, greater peace can show up at all levels. I will write about this in subsequent entries.
Judith
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Bronchitis, not Larangitis
Gabor doesn't appreciate the difference, a difference which is life threatening for me. However, Gabor especially, and also David and Lara, have been present and fabulous - shaking, slapping, pushing, massaging (officially called assisted coughing) - whatever it takes to get the guck up so I can keep on breathing. Today has been a little better, and I have been up a few hours, breathing, eating, getting my hair washed and catching up on e-mail.
As Gabor wrote it has also been an intimate time of sharing and recreating our commitment to inclusion, the tour and to life itself. After a valiant and successful struggle to get one mucous clot up I told him I'd give him three more years!
It's clear this respite at the other end of the Rabbit Hole is time limited. The work and we need a base, a home, a strategy and resources. But I could not have planned for or imagined a more valuable research retreat than the past few months have been.
As always there is more to say but time and breath (for the puff/sip Morse Code) are limited.
Love; Judith
As Gabor wrote it has also been an intimate time of sharing and recreating our commitment to inclusion, the tour and to life itself. After a valiant and successful struggle to get one mucous clot up I told him I'd give him three more years!
It's clear this respite at the other end of the Rabbit Hole is time limited. The work and we need a base, a home, a strategy and resources. But I could not have planned for or imagined a more valuable research retreat than the past few months have been.
As always there is more to say but time and breath (for the puff/sip Morse Code) are limited.
Love; Judith
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