And Now, For Something Completely Different...

Speaking of a video game the other night, my sister said, "The background music is beautiful if you can hear it through the violence." That sentence has rolled around my brain for almost a full day now, for it rings so true on so many levels.

Terrible things are happening all over the world, large scale atrocities mixing with personal tradgedies and disappointments. The strong get stronger, the weak are oppressed, the global economy frantically seeks to stop drowning. And yet... just sitting with my niece on my knee, reading BADD posts out loud to her so she'll settle down and stop poking my monitor, I can hear that beautiful background music that is the little goodnesses of life. Eating a really tasty meal, enjoying a good movie, resting in my husband's embrace: all of these things may not be greater than a horrific earthquake in China, but they are beautiful, and they are important. They are both what make life livable and wonderful, despite all the flak in the air.

Life with disability is just the same. There's a lot of pain, a decent dose of humiliation, isolation, and frustration. I'm not happy I was stuck in bed yesterday morning, uncrossable feet from the medicine I needed, but if I had missed it, I would also have missed perhaps the cuddliest time I have ever had with my dog. Without my regular mobility impairment, I would not have the fun of screeching around at top speed in my 'chair. There is background music, and it is very pretty.

There are small joys everywhere, just waiting to be noticed and acknowledged. I resolve to do my best to deal with the violence as I can, and listen to the music always.

(Ironically, in the original context of my sister's quote, I could not hear the music. In fact, I couldn't hear the violence either, unless I really tried at it. I'm just trusting her that there were sounds of violence and music to be heard. Go go gadget audio processing disorder!)