The Chicago Tribune recently ran a profile on Sean Stephenson, a motivational speaker and psychotherapist with osteogenesis imperfecta (sometimes referred to as “brittle bone disease”). Stephenson speaks in the language of self-help books–he’s a big critic of something he terms self-sabotage–but one of his quotes near the article’s end caught my attention:
Being 3 feet tall and in a wheelchair is about 2 percent of who I am.
On good days, my disability is about 10% of who I am. Other times, it looms much larger in my self-image. I’d be a terrible motivational speaker. “My disability is an integral part of my character, but then again, my character is more than a teensy bit neurotic” is not a message that is going to sell many books or get me on the morning talk show circuit. More power to Stephenson and his sunny band of extroversion.
Man, you crack me up. We need talk or IM or e-mail each other sometime.
hmmm… I think I’m more with you than with him. I’m unable to explain away the parts of me that shape who I am, whether I acknowledge their existence or not–my whiteness, my girl-ness, etc…
Well, there’s always the bright side approach, I guess. Can’t say I like motivational speakers, though. A lot of them just annoy me.
You are the hero of neurotics everywhere. And you’re Good Enough, and Smart Enough, and Doggone it…