This week I watched Independent Lens on PBS. An episode called Move Me aired. It’s about a dancer, Kelsey Peterson, who had an accident that left her paralyzed. The film is an unflinching look at the daily routine of a person with a spinal cord injury. Adjusting to a radical change in lifestyle is overwhelming at times, and can be painful. So much of Kelsey’s life involved the ability to move.
I was born with my disability, so I have a learned ability to experiment and perform tasks in alternative ways. This film shows Kelsey’s efforts to learn a new way to dance. Kelsey also documents her interviews with other spinal cord injury survivors, some of whom have participated in a trial that could restore some functioning. As she contemplates her decision, I thought about some of the most powerful things that were revealed.
Kelsey talks about starting to experience the underestimation that is the pervasive view of an able society of all people with disabilities. She mentions the extra time that is spent on the daily routine. But the most poignant thing is the loss of the thought of freedom. One of Kelsey’s friends says that what he misses most is not being able to decide to do something and just do it.
This last point caused me to reflect on the years of resentment that so much of my own life could never be as spontaneous as I’ve wanted it to be. Happiness comes when we remove our internal barriers so that we can do battle with the physical barriers in the inaccessible world.