I am a lucky, lucky Kossack. Although I live alone up on Pikes Peak, I have a large network of friendships developed over time in the community diaries here on Daily Kos. Many of those friendships have been deepened through contact on facebook, over the phone, via email, and real life meetings. When I got sick this spring, so sick all I wanted to do was huddle under my quilt and let nature take its course, my friends rode to the rescue, making me feel less alone.
For many in the disabled community, isolation is a hideous problem.
KosAbility is a community diary series posted at 5 PM ET every Sunday and Wednesday by volunteer diarists. This is a gathering place for people who are living with disabilities, who love someone with a disability, or who want to know more about the issues surrounding this topic. There are two parts to each diary. First, a volunteer diarist will offer their specific knowledge and insight about a topic they know intimately. Then, readers are invited to comment on what they've read and or ask general questions about disabilities, share something they've learned, tell bad jokes, post photos, or rage about the unfairness of their situation. Our only rule is to be kind; trolls will be spayed or neutered.
I think about BFSkinner, forced by lupus complications to move to assisted living in the prime of his life.
I think about ulookarmless, undergoing chemo last winter all alone and desperately ill.
I think about homogenius, forced to leave his friends in the Bay Area to care for his disabled father ... and deal with a prosthetic leg that has fallen apart to the point he has to use a wheelchair at times.
I think about Otteray Scribe, the ultimate caretaker, thirteen years older than I am yet soldiering on in sorrow.
I think about the mothers of disabled kids, a lucky few with partners, but most trying to get disappearing social and medical services for their children without help.
I think about my nephew, living in a group home and knowing, every single day of his life, that it will never get any better than this.
I think about indiemcemopants, paralyzed and gay, living in government housing in a tiny, hateful town in Alabama.
Isolated. Most, impoverished. All cherished friends and members of the KosAbility family. I think about what we mean to one another, about the "lift" I get when I find a silly card in the mailbox, or see that BFSkinner has posted a music diary, or get a poke on facebook from ulookarmless. When the subject line of an email from Otteray Scribe, taking a break from his own duties, says, "How you is?" When someone tells me that they saw indie at Netroots and that he looked "strong and healthy".
And then I think about all of you who don't have such connections, who may be overcome by the isolation you live with, and I think, we need to do better. KosAbility's boilerplate says this:
There are two parts to each diary. First, a volunteer diarist will offer their specific knowledge and insight about a topic they know intimately. Then, readers are invited to comment on what they've read and or ask general questions about disabilities, share something they've learned, tell bad jokes, post photos, or rage about the unfairness of their situation.
If you've been reluctant to comment in the KosAbility diaries or offer to share your story in a diary, please step forward today. This is a safe place to talk about those things that wake you up in the middle of the night when those evil twins, pain and despair, come to visit. There is a community here, your community. KosAbility is a form of social media, a way out of isolation, and I want all of you to have what I have: people who care.
Talk to Nurse Kelley. ♥