Friday, December 04, 2009

Soul Food ?


As a fictional hoboclown detective,there isn't much that I miss.Afterall,I have a fictional reality.But this morning,I hopped off the train at the Market-East gallery in Philadelphia,PA USA and saw some unbelievable sights in the ordinary human world.While seated at a breakfast table sipping hot coffee and eating a piece of cornbread,I noticed two young women approaching the fast food counter.One was seated in an arm-powered wheelchair and the other was pushing her.The woman who was seated was talking a lot.As the pair got closer, I noticed that the woman pushing the verbose wheelchair-bound lady had a white cane with a red tip on her right wrist as she used both hands to push her friend in the wheelchair.Then, I noticed that she was gazing upward, a little to the left as she precisely navigated a right turn toward the restaurant ordering counter.She was visually-challenged but her wheelchair-bound companion was sighted and was giving directional verbal commands.'Wow!',I thought.I took a quick bite of cornbread and a quick sip of coffee as now my attention was riveted on the pair.After they paid for their purchases,the pair exited the restaurant.But something was different! While exiting,the wheelchair-bound passenger was now moving her own wheelchair,using both arms.The visually-challenged woman has transferred her cane to her left wrist while she pushed the left wheelchair grip with her left hand.Her right hand now contained a foam cup of coffee as she merely rested it on the right wheelchair grip.Their roles were almost reversed.The wheelchair-bound lady was now silently leading the visually-challenged woman to their destination.Was this triumph over adversity? Or,
an ingenious re-balancing of two different challenges? Immediately,it became obvious
that some major strengths that the two women had in common were PATIENCE and non-judgmental TOLERANCE which equalled not only PRACTICAL PROBLEM-SOLVING but a big morning boost of COURAGE and SELF-ACCOMPLISHMENT .This brief image added nourishment to my morning coffee and cornbread.It takes someone special to make a meal like
that !

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