Sunday, January 24, 2010

In-Class Entry 1/25/10

Earlier this past week, Mr. Glenn told the class that on Friday, we were going to be meeting in the drama room and also informed us to wear clothes that we wouldn't mind getting a little dusty or dirty. This had me wondering what exactly we were going to be doing. The class ended up doing an activity that proved what it was like being physically disabled. This related to the previous night's reading by Nancy Mairs titled On Being a Cripple. I had a lot of mixed feelings about this personal narrative. First, I thought it would be very interesting to read about life from a disabled point of view, but that interest slowly turned to boredom. She started the essay with a short little anecdote about her falling into a toilet and just laughing it off. She goes on to state that the point of her piece is not to beg for sympathy, but to simply show what it is like living with the crippling disease multiple sclerosis. About half way through the piece, I began to feel like Mairs was just continuing to ramble on about the same ideas, and the repetitiveness was taking a toll on me. There were times, though, that Mairs described some horrible things that made me feel really bad from her and I was a bit depressed. This depression carried over to Friday when we had class in the drama room.
We walked in this large black painted room with paper everywhere on the floor. Mr. Glenn then instructed us to crawl from one side of the room to the other, however there was a bit of a twist. We were not allowed to use our legs at all. This task was a but difficult but it made me realize what handicapped people had to go through everyday. We then had to retrieve a piece of paper and a pencil and write with our bare feet on the sheet of paper. That might have been one of the hardest things I've done in a while.
Mr. Glenn gave us some background info on Ramon Sampedro, a Spanish diver that became a quadrapalegic after a mid-life diving accident. We watched scenes from a movie, based on a true story, in which Ramon is tired of living a "life without dignity". He and his lawyer brought his case to trial in which he fought for the right to end his own life. This depressing story ends when Ramon decides to drink a cup of water with a dose of potassium cyanide. The film portrayed the death very realistically. He set up a camera and filmed his death as he described the feeling as "hot". What a horrible way to die, but if I were in his situation I might consider doing the same thing. There really wouldn't be a concrete purpose for living and that is extremely depressing even to think about. But it also made me think about being thankful for the life that I life becaue something like that could happen to anyone.

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