Kiki 🌙

you can be down for simple assimilation for yourself but many of us just want to be respected as is because theres nothing wrong with being different. especially those of us who are also neurodivergent on top of queer or many other things people often ostracize in society.

if you want other queers to water themselves down or just completely close off parts of their identity and self expression so that you wont be associated with those ~freaks~ and can be more easily accepted by The Normies, then you are not caring about your fellow queers at all.

cleaning or wipe your bare feet

breaking off a piece of bread and handing it to someone

putting the weight of a basket on your hip or head

eating nuts or berries while hunched over close to the ground

seeing something startling just out of your line of sight and very quickly stepping or leaping on to a larger object to get a better view

cupping your hands into running water to wash your face

the unanimous protection of a baby or child in a public space where women are present

Touching someone’s face with the back of your hand to see if they have a fever

Stopping to watch animals moving in groups (geese, fish, horses, butterflies, bees)

huddling together for warmth when it’s cold

marveling at sunlight through leaves

wonderment at the brightness of a full moon

And yeah, this sucks. All of this sucks and is vastly damaging to people’s physical and mental health. We’re enduring a global trauma, the ramifications of which will likely be felt for decades.

But when it was just my daily life being housebound due to my disabilities, it was a-okay for you to abandon me to this life while using phrases like, “must be nice” and “sounds rough,” all said smilingly under the sneering veneer of implied laziness and choice.

But I also need those people to realize that this is the reality of many of us living with disabilities and chronic conditions. We endure this level of isolation constantly. Sometimes for years and years, if not our whole lives. And it is often not our choice. But it can be the choice of those around us.

And I get it, it sucks when your friend is too ill to go anywhere and you just want to do fun shit. But it sucks worse for them. And you can choose. You can choose to be inclusive and do things they are capable of being a part of. Or you can choose to leave them behind and make assumptions that they’re just being lazy or a bad friend because on some level you can’t help but feel if they really wanted to do something, they’d do it.

All I’m asking for, begging really, is for a little mindfulness. Please stop comparing this life to a fate worse to death. Or if you really must make that comparison, ask yourself why you were okay with some of the most vulnerable people in society being left to endure it on their own. And why it took you a global pandemic to realize the inhumanity of it.

They responded: “But of course! That’s how you get good at drawing something? Why would you apologize for that?”