Never tell a quad not to eat grapes

{visual description: A photo of red and green grapes.}

I happen to like grapes. It's a lot of work for me to eat them because of the lack of dexterity in my hands.

One of my quad friends still gets teased about one time when he tried to eat shelled nuts at someone's house. It took him so long to open one nut that his friend's mom looked at him and said "I hope that was worth it."

"It was," he replied.

And I can relate to that. I get to choose where my energy goes just like everyone else. You might decide it's worth it to go rock climbing and I'm not into that. It's not any different.

But it goes beyond that too. All too often I hear people say to me or another person with a disabiity "You can't do that." Sometimes it's "You shouldn't do that." Or my least favorite because it's so fear-based "You better not do that!"

The problem with this kind of talk is it excludes possibilities. It closes doors that may not need to be closed. And, worst of all, it negates the fact that only the person with the disability knows his/her limits and abilities.

My cat loves it when I eat grapes. He can play with the ones I drop. It's that simple to him.

After a day like today, I wish others would take a lesson from that.