Hello. How are you? Hope you have had a decent week. I think technically, Sunday is the first day of the week but I can't be dealing with all that so as you were.
I wanted to write a bit about my day job. As you probably know if you have been here a while, I am the CEO of a charity which provides transport to help people who can't access the usual types of transport - buses, cars and of course Shanks's Pony or as it is better known - walking. If you are reasonably light on your feet, you probably have never been troubled by having to use something like the mobility scooter pictured above. If you have mobility problems - caused by disability, pregnancy, an accident or just knocking on a bit, this machine will be a godsend. It lacks glamour - I'll give you that and some of the people you see using them seem to be figures of fun - perhaps because of their weight - but please consider that there are sometimes many complicated reasons why people are overweight. You might think it's just too many chips but sometimes it's a drug regime or an injury that prevents you from taking any exercise. All is not always as it seems.
Anyway, the people you might see out and about using these things are all very different people, different problems, long hair, short hair, bits missing, no bits missing, harder life than you or me or quite a nice life really and the way they choose to get around is probably the least interesting thing about a disabled person. Oh and just as an afterthought, people with a disability can be complete ratbags as well - same as anyone. However, one thing that a scooter does signal is that the person using it is usually physically vulnerable. I mean, if he could kickbox like the Hulk they wouldn't be in the scooter, right? Indeed. Who would want to use one unless they had to? People will walk in front of you - because they haven't looked properly - and be physically very intimidating when you nearly hit them - shouting and threatening etc. They can also look you in the eye while they steal your bag from the basket in the front of the scooter. What are you going to do about it? I know this stuff happens. I've dealt with it on other people's behalf. It's poor form and low behaviour but people with a disability see a lot of it. (Doesn't make it right and some people need to sort their lives out). This week though saw the death of Thomas OHalloran. An 87-year-old man, busking in his mobility scooter, collecting money for Ukraine. He was stabbed in an unprovoked attack. A man, whose age and the fact that he was on a scooter, screamed vulnerability, which someone took advantage of. I am usually a lily-livered liberal but I am letting you know now that, if the chap with the knife claims "M'Lud my meds are off-kilter" which means that he gets to lie on a bed for six months and search his feelings, I will be very unhappy indeed.
Anyway, while we are all checking our watches to double check what century we are in and that there is nothing on the statute books that allows society to have a go at someone because they are a bit slower than you at the checkout at Poundland, I thought I would draw your attention to some examples that show Jesus was quite the revolutionary when it came to dealing with the disabled and way ahead of his time. (That is, if God has a time etc etc. I know what I mean). I'm not actually going to go into the actual supernatural healing part because that is a different thing altogether - just Jesus' attitude.
1. Blind Bartimeus - this is a man who refused to be silenced and back off into the background because he couldn't see. And Jesus spoke to him directly, asking him a direct question - "What do you want me to do?". so not like an idiot and he gave the man himself the choices around the way forward - not the crowd of randoms around him. Quite a big deal when you think people still ask the person pushing the wheelchair - "What happened to him?"
2. The woman with the haemorrhage. It's generally accepted that this woman had problems with her periods. (Don't worry - I put my hand over my mouth when I wrote that word). The way Jesus dealt with her - for the time - was astonishing. By touching him she had technically made him unclean. He didn't mention it. Made her step forward but not to humiliate her - to congratulate her on her courage. We have just had a big hoo-hah in 2022 because a top-class runner had admitted on TV that she has struggled with period pains. So we have moved approximately an inch worm's length away from the attitudes of two thousand years ago. Jesus? Unbothered.
3. The man blind from birth - When people asked Jesus what had this blind man done to deserve his disability, he told them - There was no cause and effect here. Nobody did anything. Life is more complicated than that and we should just be looking for reasons to do good in all these situations. Revolutionary for the time and to be honest - quite a challenge now - remember what I said about too many chips putting you in a scooter?
There are loads of these stories but there is a line running through them. Jesus didn't humiliate, always kind (not patronising) and looked for a way to help. It's a template. Don't say I don't give you anything. Have a great week.
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