What's in a Name?

As is tradition, I am opening this blog with a "why I have created this blog" post.  Not exciting in and of itself, I'm sure, but I have a story to tell, and I am here to tell it.

Generally, I blog over HERE.  And, why, you ask, do I not share my story there?  Most of my readers over there are knitters and have no idea about my medical status.  It's more complicated to introduce the whole story over there to people who are really only interested in fiber and needles than it is to start over here and talk about my disability in a place where the readers really aren't interested in the knitting stuff at all but who perhaps live with disabilities themselves.

I've been mulling over creating a new blog for some time, but haven't gotten around to it.  Ok, that's not true.  I've attempted this story in other places, but it hasn't really "stuck" so I'm trying again.

So welcome to the blog of the

CRIPPLE EXTRAORDINAIRE

Cripple- noun.   According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it is "one who is disabled (either from birth, or by accident or injury) from the use of his limbs; a lame person."1  It has come, in our society, to be a term seen as derogatory and can be used offensively.  But not here, not with me.  Here it is just a way of telling the truth and calling things as I see them.  For reasons discussed below, I am a "cripple" and that is pretty much the quickest way to put it.  (I do not, however, advocate casually using this term with anyone else.)

Extraordinaire- an adjective fantastically borrowed from French that retains its word order by being placed after the noun it is modifying, like "galore" (pardon the linguist).  Again, the OED, "remarkable, outstanding; of a person: unusually active or successful in a particular field."2  I don't profess to be a remarkable cripple in that I am somehow better than others with disabilities or should be praised for all the things I do in spite of my limitations.  In fact, please don't.  I will elaborate on this further, but for now, take my word for it.  No, my goal is to be extraordinary in life in some way.  I just happen to be crippled.

So I am here to tell my story that you may glimpse into my world: my story of being a "normie" to becoming a cripple, life as I learn to relive it, and the world as I now view it.


1. "cripple, n. and adj.". OED Online. November 2010. Oxford University Press. 22 December 2010 <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/44529?rskey=bp1GLZ&result=1&isAdvanced=false>.

2. "extraordinaire, adj.". OED Online. November 2010. Oxford University Press. 22 December 2010 <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/67121?redirectedFrom=extraordinaire>.