OK, perhaps a bit of backtracking is in order. When I was in 5th Grade, a group of ignorant boys mimicked my walking in a school hallway, changing this young girl’s life. From that moment, I began to embrace an irrational belief that my Dystonia was somehow distasteful to the opposite sex, reinforced over time by a paucity of male friends, dates and boyfriends. Naturally, I blamed Dystonia, the obvious scapegoat for anything that pushed my life outside the “normalcy” I craved.
Fortunately, my seemingly reasonable but foolish presumptions were counterbalanced by an imaginary prince who whisked me away from Scarsdale on his white horse – or via white Corvette. In the plot line of this fairy tale, my gallant chivalrously brushed aside my health issues upon gazing into my eyes, a delightful fantasy that failed to procure me a social life.
Notwithstanding a medical lifetime sentence imposed at age 8-1/2, a troop of real world princes busted me out of my childhood prison, demonstrating that eating Quiche and sensitivity to Dystonia are a real man’s prerogatives. Now I take heart in guys who treasure books for the reading and understand a wealth of imperfections keeps life interesting.
I leant a heavy hand constructing the walls that held me captive. No matter our objective circumstance, we imprison ourselves in the subjective images we embrace. The key to living with – or without – disability is to espouse a “healthy” self-view and carry faith in life’s possibilities. I ever take heart my Cinderella ending lingers within arm’s reach.
