Guest Post from Dirty Butter

Every now and then there is a comment left that I want to turn into a post! (If you leave a comment please check back as I will request your permission in a comment after yours before I put it up. Most likely your insight is wiser than you think. And I truly appreciate the participation of my readers.)

This one by Dirty Butter from Day by Day with Peripheral Neuropathy falls in that category. She writes from the perspective of someone who is dealing with physical limitations - who also does caregiving- and contains wisdom about the need for inclusion to make us all whole:


Dirty Butter writes;

My Daddy is well on his way to being 102 years old. Whenever he has trouble getting dressed or anything else frustrates him, he always says he wishes he would go on and die. And I always tell him there's a reason why he's still here.

My mother lingered for a long time with Alzheimer's, as we cared for her body long after her mind was gone. It would be way too easy to agree with Daddy that some people are of no use here and would be better off "somewhere else".

I can see in my own self the truth of why Daddy is still here and why Mama needed care for so long. I grew up during all these years of care giving. I had never been a spoiled only child, but I also had never had to deal with any unpleasantness. I had not been hardened in the fire, so to speak. Dealing with the old, the ill, the disabled, anyone with an impairment of any kind, has the potential to bring out the best in the rest of us. We learn compassion, empathy, helpfulness, courtesy, patience, and so many other positive character traits that good times and perfect health cannot teach.

What I'm trying to say, Ruth, is that you and others like you, are actually GOOD for the majority of us! If society isolates [people with disabilities], they deprive themselves, not just you.

[Click above to read Dirty Butter's blog]

Thank you so much for your comment. I have a great deal of respect for caregivers. We have an awesome caregiver group in our parish.

Let me just add, as I emphasize here on my blog, that people with disabilities, in the context of family, church and society have much to offer in terms of talents and skills (and expressions of God's love) which is overlooked and, unfortunately, lost when they are not included.