Crips and proud

stickywicket

Sign up, please, if you feel that you lead a fulfilling, useful life despite your disability and that you contribute positively to your family and community. You don't have to be:

Stephen Hawkin CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA
Dr Tom Shakespeare (Research fellow and author)
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE and many times Paralympic champion

You just have to be disabled and useful and neither afraid of that label nor apologetic about it.

LignumVitae

I'll sign up - part time worker who is called on to have the ideas when everybody else is scratching their heads (arthritis teaches you to think creatively, thank you arthritis). Full time mum who is the favourite story teller (I might not be able to spend hours in a playground but I can transport you anywhere you wish to be in a story my girls). Get this too - as of a month ago very occasional runner, whilst pushing a pram and people always say nice things when they see us all (me, twins in pram, two dogs walking at my running pace), they think it's good I'm doing that and they don't even know I'm an arthritic...I run as if I have many muscle imbalances but really I'm just arthritic

theresak

I'll be a fully paid up, signed up member too, Sticky. I like to think I'm still useful, as although I may struggle physically at times, I do what I can, and I certainly exercise my mind.

I can look after my little grandsons & keep them entertained, I can & do contribute to life in our parish community, and I am usually available once a week for story time at our little primary school.

I may be in my sixties & arthritic, but life is still there to be lived, and the one thing I can offer at this stage of my life is time - usually in short supply in my younger, fitter days.

Keep carrying the flag!


PS I was introduced a few years ago to Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, at an awards night with my older son. She is warm, funny, and truly inspirational.

Grangi

I am in, having a very tough time with my RA & OA struggling to be joyful. However I still manage to work have just had to adapt the way I do stuff. Make myself walk to work even though sometimes it makes me nearly cry, but I know I have to do it.
A few weeks ago a small child told me "you are the best person in all of the countries, even better than Father Christmas " yes I got a big lump in my throat. So being fat, arthritic & feeling low with it all doesn't matter I still make a difference with the work I do. Brilliant & so many others are the same well done!!!

mig

Ive signed up . Mig

dreamdaisy

Count me in. OK, I need aids to walk a distance, tire far too quickly at times, lack stamina and have had to adjust what I do and how I do it but so what? I have this life and it's a good one thanks to my husband, my friends (both arthritic and not), my work was enjoyable and fulfilling, I can still get out and about so what's to fret about? My positive mental attitude, a good sense of humour and a refusal to navel gaze means I can make the best of what I have and I do.

Those who judge are the ones with a problem which is far harder to overcome: an innate sense of superiority. DD

Slosh

Sign me up too.
I need crutches to walk but I work part-time as a Reading interventions manager/Assitant head in a large primary school.

I have groups of yr 6 pupils who tell me and their teachers that they enjoy my sessions and like coming out to them. One today said that I get nicevthings for them so they should do something for me.

I am a Mother and Grandmother and offer emotional support to my daughter (recently diagnosed with ME) and always get a wonderful welcome from my three Grandchildren.

I am a crafter and sell items at a monthly craft fair.

Yes things are tough at times and I've had to move to part-time work but I still have a lot to contribute and hopefully I can be a positive role model as a disabled person to pupils in school, especially those who are themselves disabled.

bubbadog

Sign me up! I'm using a walker in the house and wheelchair outdoors and I'm working on 'AbleHere' disabled networking site and running ' The Book Club' on this site.

stickywicket

I apologise to all who have contributed to, or even just read, this thread. I was trying to 'reclaim' a certain word which I don't think I have ever in my life used before, with the possible exception of a jokey conversation with fellow disabled friends.

I used it because I had seen it (or rather the full word) used in a disparaging way and I was very angry. Not a good time to post :roll:

Like the rest of you remarkable grafters, I am not at all ashamed of being disabled. It was not a choice. It was a misfortune that we have overcome. We have every reason to be proud of ourselves. Except maybe when we used words like that on here :oops:

Sharon2960

I don't think you need to apologise; I think most of us understood where you're coming from, and why. Even those of us who are still mobile, we know what may lie ahead, and dislike the use of that word.

theresak

The use of the word to which you refer, SW, says much more about the user of the word. It was emotive and insulting, and you have no need to apologise for highlighting that those of us on here with our various types of arthritis can still play a very fulfilling part in life. Indeed, why shouldn't we?

mig

No apologies necessary.Mig

barbara12

Dont apologize SW I love your threads...I have signed up and think has myself as useful...sometimes,,,

LignumVitae

Don't apologise. You did a good thing, far better than battling those who use the word because they will never understand how unpleasant it is. You made the whole fog more light hearted! I did wonder if you had joined an American gang. The crips are a LA gang who have an ongoing feud with the Bloods...maybe their CRP is off the scale. I don't know why or how I know about them!

Starburst

theresak wrote:

The use of the word to which you refer, SW, says much more about the user of the word. It was emotive and insulting, and you have no need to apologise for highlighting that those of us on here with our various types of arthritis can still play a very fulfilling part in life. Indeed, why shouldn't we?

I agree with your sentiments.

I am proud to be a disabled person. Why should I be ashamed of how I am? It's not entirely who I am but it's part of me.

Slosh

I just want to know where we can get our club badges.

Starburst

Thinking more about this. I truly believe that some people lose sight of the power of language. In social work, we use 'person first' language. I identify people as human beings; "Mrs X lives with a diagnosis of dementia" and "Mr Y has a physical disability/impairment". Mrs X is not dementia and Mr Y is not a disabled person. Mrs X is a grandmother of 10 and a life-long advocate of women's rights. Mr Y is a talented painter and a sociable man who is well known down his local pub. When we forget these things, we clump people together in groups. They are more than their impairments. When you label people with outdated, derogatory language, you take us back to the days when doctors/social workers/professionals could write any old rubbish about a person and their medical or social care needs, you take out the most important factor; the person. Our head social worker says; you don't ask "what's the matter with you?", you ask "what matters to you?".

lindalegs

I don't mind the word 'Crips' SW, It's that word which made me open this thread. I don't find it disparaging at all.

It's just a word at the end of the day.

My eldest son calls my adapted cutlery my crip-le-ments, which I find funny!

I'm a Crip and I'm proud of it!
I'm useless and don't care!
I can still talk ......rubbish sometimes I admit!
I can still listen!
.....and most importantly I can still laugh!

I'm glad to be part of the Crip Club

Love,

Boomer13

I'm a crip and I don't care who knows!! :zombie-cat: I have no recent accomplishments except surviving to date intact (sort of) and still in my marriage of 17 years (it's my anniversary! :vampire: scary!) After ten years of extreme pain and dysfunction and five of not working, my marriage should of cracked by now. I have a great, loyal spouse who keeps surprising me with the depth of his commitment and spirit.

I have people who don't think I'm a crip and I thumb my nose at them because they have no idea what it's like to be me with PsA. I only am doing as well as I am because I took care of myself in my younger days and was extremely fit and without any perceived physical problems, even though now I think I had PsA simmering along in the background.

I like the term crip; I like to poke fun at my illness, it keeps everything in perspective. Crip sounds about right.

Thanks for your post Starburst, that's a good way of looking at people.

Slosh

Have to agree Starburst. It's the same in education, especially with SEND, it's about seeing the pupil/client/person first. Labels are useful only if they are used to ensure the correct help and support is in place. Words have power and there is a responsibility on us to use them with respect.

OliverT

I'm not a crip, so sadly cant be part of the club, but I work with a few. And a couple of spastics.

These are terms that specific customers have used to refer to themselves, though I also have plenty who wouldn't use those terms that could do if they chose to. Most of them just don't see themselves as disabled though, even though most of them would be seen as by those without missing or messed up limbs/brains/what-have-you.

I've got no-problems with labels though, they're good as descriptors and help in communication, but they're much loved by the media as ways to define and divide - and for that they are terrible.

Still, it's great to know there are crips here - just don't let the term define who you are!

slomo

I meant to add a comment to this post a few days ago but I've not been firing on all cylinders for the last week/10 days.
So here's what I thought and you can all mock the afflicted and have a good laugh!
I couldn't understand what it meant and assumed it was an anagram of something I hadn't heard of before. I kept looking at the posts and hoping one of them would suddenly enlighten me.
And then it dawned on me! I was reading what I thought was there and not what was really there. Sticky, I thought you were saying that we were all CRISPS!!!
okay, I can hear the laughter starting now - I think I must be a half-baked one if I'm a crisp.
C -Clever
R - Resourceful
I - Ingenious
S -Special
P -Person

Anyone got a particular favourite flavour?!

slomo

(saw the rheumy yesterday so hopefully I'll get my head back in gear)

theresak

We can all be crisp eating crips!! Cheese & onion for me, please.

mig

Plain old plain for me.

lindalegs

I'm a Ready Salted gal myself!!

Love,

Slosh

Used to love ready salted or black pepper crisps but can't eat them any more due to my throat problem