The Seated View

Gratitude. Every November (and October in Canada), we all pay a little more attention to what we are thankful for. It makes you feel better to realize those small moments of quiet joy. In November, the Show Us Your Hands! Picture Project asked the inflammatory arthritis community “What are you thankful for?” We got lots of wonderful submissions. Tia Maria showed us an impressive bruise, saying “ I'm thankful for this bruised hand because it signifies finally getting my Remicade infusion and hopefully feeling this flare slip away soon.” Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful perspective with us! Several people in the community are thankful for their pets. Among them were Trisha and her “cuddle buddy, Chuck … He loves me so much.” We all agree that he has a wonderful face! Jill was thankful for her cat, who in the true (and kind of endearing) spirit of all cats, turned its head just when the camera went off.   Christina submitted her photo on Twitter...

My mother has two brothers and a sister. They were born in two teams of two, the two oldest, Poul and Lissie, born about 10 years before my mother and Kurt. Kurt was the baby of the family, five years younger than my mother, and true to form of the youngest child, got in a significant number of scrapes in his life. He is also the source of the infamous family story of a small child at the circus loudly asking his mother why the elephant had five legs.     Kurt and my mother were always close. He was her little brother and from very early on, she kept him safe. He had a tendency to climb things, trees and giant rolls of telephone cable, but changing his mind about climbing down once he saw how high up he was. It was my mother’s job to climb up and get him, carrying him down on her back. They called her Monkey Mom.   In the next generation, for a long time we were only my cousin Hanne and me, with 10 years between us. Ten years after that, three others c...

Today, I am privileged to host a guest post by Emma Thompson. Her post is about the research she is doing about people with disabilities and their clothes. Given my recent post about IZ Adaptive , it’s no surprise that I jumped at the chance to feature Emma’s story. If you’re interested in participating in the study, her contact information is at the bottom of the post. Emma Thompson is a second year Master’s student in the joint Communication and Culture program between York and Ryerson University. Her research and thesis, Left Out: A Revealing Look into the Everyday Fashion Choices of Individuals with Mobility Disabilities , focuses on wheelchair users and their relationships with their clothes. When I tell people my master’s degree research looks at individuals with mobility disabilities, specifically wheelchair users and their relationships with their clothes, the typical response I receive is “I never even thought of that”. So while this confirms that my research area...