Shake the disease
Oh hey, were you aware? There are diseases out there. You should be! Because the folks who are trying to cure them want you to be aware that they exist. Now, I do the Komen Race For the Cure every year and my mother died of breast cancer, but seriously, is there anyone on the planet who isn’t aware of breast cancer? I really don’t understand this “awareness” thing. I say this because I have a disease and it recently had its day, May 19th. Did you know that May 19th was World IBD Day? I hope you were aware because your awareness of it has totally changed my IBD experience.
Yes, I’m cynical. I’m glad we get a day. But if you were wondering why I haven’t mentioned it before or at least not in any detail it’s not because it’s a secret but rather because I simply don’t identify myself as a Person With A Disease. It simply is. I also can’t fly and I’m bad with learning languages. Both are limitations. Not being able to fly, for example, has lengthened my commute time and makes it hard to get to higher floors of buildings without taking the elevator or stairs. But, you see, I am more than a Person Who Can’t Fly. And I don’t need to Tweet about it or make my Facebook statuses about it because it’s an every day thing and I’ve been aeronautically challenged long enough to not really think about it very much, except when I am especially grounded or when I have to make that yearly appointment to have my damaged wings checked out via an invasive wingoscopy.
Ha ha, you say. Yes, it’s more than that and it makes life hard, but seriously, doesn’t everyone have something? It feels weird and limiting to run around with a disease telling everyone about it and relating your every online utterance to that obstacle. It’s one thing to keep a blog for others who have that illness or to talk about your experience and share. It also seems OK to me to advocate for someone else’s illness. But to become a tooting horn for your disease feels almost… narcissistic. But more than that, it reduces your life to your body’s abnormality. You’re more than that, I promise you. It’s OK to talk about something else. And yes, I’m thinking about certain people I see in my travels online in particular and am really too lameass to comment to them directly. I suck like that. But at least I’m aware of it. A cure for Lameass in our lifetimes!
What color is the ribbon?
I don’t know but they have a blue rubber bracelet. You can never have enough rubber bracelets for the cause.