Sunday, April 09, 2006

(not the dance) links

Just before sleep last night, TheMIG told me that he'd heard a discussion on the radio about a program that had aired the night before on one of the major TV networks. He said that sometime (this past week--missed it, dang it) they'd aired a program about folks who "wanna-be" amputees. We agreed to see if we could find a link to the show this morning.

A good dance buddy of mine just emailed it to me, saving me some google-time.

What drives people to want to be amputees?

I'm not in the mood the say anything more about this really. I've done some of that in other posts. This discussion usually makes me pretty flippin' emotional. I'll just point out two quotes.

Reading this literally gave me a huge full body shudder:
"When these people see an amputee, they see … a person of strength being able to overcome hardship, someone to be admired," First said.

And reading this gave me the rocks-in-the-tummy feeling:
For a man remarkably at home in his wheelchair, there is a hint of regret. There are places the wheelchair can't take him, like to the beach to feel the sand under his feet.
"It's all those little things, like that," Karl said. "What the hell was I thinking?"

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A few weeks ago, another dance friend sent me a link to this:
Whole: A Documentary
Haven't seen it.
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Ok. I lied. I guess I actually do I have one thing to say about this.
I'm just kinda sitting here wondering how the heck the health insurance business deals with this. TheMIG pointed out that the ABC article is referring to folks in countries such as France, where healthcare coverage is probably vastly different than what we have here in the USA.

My amputation has drained me financially (understatement), and mine was "covered". Maybe while good ol' Karl is (not) running his toes through the sand, he is also pondering how he's going to pay his medical bills.

Dance links coming soon.

2 comments:

Mark Brown said...

Quick comment.
Bicycle shops have something called "Bull-shot" which IS a lubricant.
About $18.00 can, and highly recommended. I use it for re-greasing printer carriages.

Please check with your doctor so they can verify it works, so you're not the guinea pig.

Cheers
Markbnj

Gray said...

I don't understand wannabes at all, but I have known a woman who is a wannabe for nearly 15 years. She has a PhD and seems to be a normal person of good judgement in all other respects.

She told me that she recognizes this as an irrational aspect of per personality, but that it is a fundamental part of her that will not go away. The difference between her and the guy you mentioned is that she seems to be able to clearly separate reality from from her fantasy. I don't think she will ever seriously think about acting on her feelings, though I'm not really in a position to know.

Anyway, I will look forward to hearing about dance next time. I'm playing music for some student dance recitals this month, rehearsing three days a week, and dance is much on my mind.