City Pages, the local weekly paper, has a profile of Johana Schwartz. Johana is a Stanford graduate with cerebral palsy who recently moved to Minnesota from California. She has a degree in Irish literature, which means she probably read Ulysses; a task that requires more endurance than I have. Johana has lots of nice things to say about Minnesota summers. I wonder if she’ll be as enthusiastic about our winters. I have to say the tone of the article did bother me a bit. The writer seems to spend a lot of time dwelling on Johana’s physical state and how dependent she is on others. But maybe that’s just me. Johana herself sounds like a fascinating person.
Thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions on a notebook computer. I’ll pass them on to my brother.
Dwelling on Johana’s physical state informs those of us who are unfamiliar with the physical reality of MS an appreciation of struggle, making for conflict and drama and a good story; although twice describing her difficulty with speech is unecessary, I think, but perhaps highlighting the woman’s soulful, articulate and literate inner life with her trouble being verbally understood.
It is easy to overlook the brief comment that Johana moved here because of the services offered in Minnesota: those in non-socialist states are deprived (Come for the summers, stay for the assisted living care.).