A response to a Facebook article from a disabled person  criticising people who find disabled people inspiring.

Read the article but didn't agree with much of it . Her own view is fine but speaking about "disabled people" . She doesn't speak for me  : I do! A man crawling around the supermarket because of a legs disability  just trying to keep going is exceptional and should be admired for keeping going . I admired him in the same way I admire those soldiers I've seen  struggling over the moors carrying a  lot of weigth and following instructions, keeping it together , when they are totally knackered . Same thing in my mind  .

In my own case , just a gammy hand I can't use much,  playing the harmonica , chromatic , with a button , by essentialy punching it with my knuckles , instead of pressing it  with a finger like everyone else is also exceptional but I don't get admired for that when I do  get patted on  the head , I get it for great harmonica playing and music.

There is a correct sense in my view by the normals I encounter  that I do everything to stop my handicap limiting me and that is one way that they respect me  . I think this could be because  a lot of people I know now are 55 + and have woken up to the fact that various conditions you get with age can  make you a disabled person. The fact that I've successfully lived with it since age 6 and am getting on with life pretty well I think just gets them thinking " Well Paul manages and has a decent life so it can't be that bad " And you know it isn't !

 What normals I've known  get wrong is that they correctly admire me and others for getting on with it because they think they wouldn't cope under my disabling condition . Well they're wrong  they would and do. How do I know this ? Easy : since I've been a kid I've seen people get old and get disabling condtions and they get on with it and make the best of life .

Paralympic bunch didn't inspire me one bit can't really watch what they do in the same way I don't watch synchronised swimming . But Mo Farrel did . Awsome . Its a real test of character to win those disance events and I identify completely with that sense of keeping going because that is all I have really : persistence : by and large I never give up!

All I've just written is from my experience and doesn't speak  for anyone else . Being disabled and I've come across others who think the same, I don't want anyone speaking for me . Particularly another disabled person!