“Hey, dear. Do you think I’m developmentally disabled?” I asked Ming.
I was lying in bed having a low-energy day. Ming was moving about the bedroom.
“No,” said Ming. “I think you’re developmentally juuuuuuust right.”
“Yeah, maybe!” I said.
“What about Bunny?” I asked.
Bunny was propped up on the blanket on my hip. Some would say that carrying around a stuffed rabbit toy is not developmentally appropriate for a 48 year old.
Bunny stared at Ming, curious what Ming would say.
“Bunny is just right too!” Ming said. “I actually don’t have much basis for comparison with bunnies. But Bunny does everything great too!”
I collapsed in a giggle fit. My giggles came in a main wave then many long, sustained, aftershock waves.
“Yes, Bun seems perfect to me,” I said.
Bunny hits all the developmental markers for family member rabbit deities just fine. With aplomb.
what it is
Is autism under the Developmentally Disabled umbrella? Is Intellectual / Developmentally Disabled real? I get the sense that developmental stages are a scam. Couldn’t we all just get along?
Just like intelligence is a scam. If you can measure it, it isn’t real. Every test is just testing the test. I should know–I scored standardized tests for years. All those tests were fails. I give them a 1 on a 6 point scale, where 1 doesn’t measure much beyond the bias of the test writers. You know those biases include racism, classism, and an overwhelming hierarchicalizing of what’s boring and normal.
Oh wait, capitalism means we’re only valuable as worker bees. We are defective people when we can’t work full time.
But I know the truth. I’m here for so much more than employment, as is Bunny. Ming too! If I’m developmentally disabled, then bring it.
power
Who has power? The developmentally disabled (like the schizophrenia-umbrella mental illness sufferer who is me) stops being a full person. They’re infantilized and others take their power away. Doctors, parents and guardians, and professionals decide stuff for the developmentally disabled person because obviously they are impaired. Obviously they are not able to make responsible choices in this complex world!
Intelligence pours like water, drenching so many places. If you can’t recognize it everywhere, I’m sorry for you.
Doing big maths, having a vast vocabulary, being able to rotate objects in your mind–really, who cares. Creativity, imagination, capacity to love, capacity to feel pleasure…whether you are a good person? Maybe our worth has nothing to do with how intelligent we are.
the future is disabled
Developmentally, I should be a grandmother right now. In ten years I might retire from my rewarding career. Maybe I should start dying my hair dark brown so the gray is hidden and men will continue to take me seriously. My 401(k) should be plump!
Of course I didn’t do the things, let alone at the regular times. Men have never taken me seriously, and my retirement plan is the revolution. I’m hoping money blinks out, and we live interdependent in community.
So glad I’m practicing beforehand! I will be so good at it, when the ax falls.
I have a prediction that after the revolution, we’ll all be disabled. When mainstream medicine is no longer, we’ve all endured major calamity, or we’re getting mutated right and left from radiation. In my post-apocalyptic fantasy, many people are missing an eye, mobility is creative, teeth are a rarity, and pain is everywhere. Love could become even more important then.
Love is so important right now.
