I was on an errand through the skyways last night when some guy stopped me near the Government Center and awkwardly asked my nurse if he could pray for my healing. In GimpWorld, this kind of thing is like a solar eclipse: not exactly rare, but infrequent enough that it catches you off-guard. I declined the man’s offer and shortly afterwards my nurse (herself an evangelical) said to me something like, “There are some freaky Christians out there.” The guy probably said a prayer for me anyway, which is fine. I just hope he’s from out of town. I wouldn’t want him to see me again and be all disappointed that I’m still a gimp.
A disability is not an open invitation for strangers to indulge their messianic urges, but I do appreciate the blog material.
you know its funny (sad ) not ha ha how people want to pray or do something for someone in a wheelchair but they cant seem to talk to the person in the chair… one of the things that would drive me nuts as the nurse was when people would ask me things about James like he was not there, so many times i would just say (in a not so nice voice) how about asking him? later James and i would talk about it and for him it was particularly frustrating to be looked through or treated oddly because he was in a chair… sigh
I sure do miss james and his laughter and friendship… Slight pity party here… thanks Mark for your openess.
Hugs Laura
ps for a while james was on a vent too so i know he could not speak, eventually he weaned off the vent but people acted weird because of breath patterns with the trach and speaking.
I’ll be sure to put in a word with the flying spaghetti monster on your behalf.
http://www.venganza.org/
Mark,
How about this reply?
“Thanks anyway, but I’m happy the way God made me.”
Hi. I went to college here in Glasgow (Scotland) and I would always encounter a fellow student who would invite me to a prayer meeting where I could be “cured” of my disability. He was always polite and so I would politely decline his nice offer.
Now that I’m older and wiser (well, older 🙂 ) I’m afraid I wouldn’t be so polite. It’s safe to say that anyone trying that now would hear some words that don’t appear in the Bible.
I like your blog (I found it through the BBC Ouch site).
Scream.