What Am I Working On? What Am I Thinking About?

As I recently mentioned, I am in the process of resetting my blogging routine. I think I’ve got a pretty good pattern laid out for typical weekly blogging activities. Now I’m thinking about what I want to blog about over the next several months. Here’s a look at my notes:

Unfinished business ...

Finish and post the 3rd of the "Three Threats to Disabled People Today" series ... about Assisted Suicide. Trying so say something about it that hasn't been said already, and trying to be clear what I really think and feel about it.

Finally do that long overdue post about revisiting "Inspiration Porn" ... trying to say something new about it, something that deals with why it's a problem, but that also acknowledges why people are attracted to it. I've still got a partial draft I wrote back in April.

Explore the way some people view disability primarily though a spiritual lens, maybe as a third Model of Disability alongside the Medical and Social Models.

Get going on an "I Used To Think" series, about various ways my views on disability and disability activism have changed over the course of my life.

Then, going forward ...

Try to understand the main divisions and differences within the broadly defined disability community. We agree a lot on specifics, like policy changes we'd like to see, but we are often miles apart in temperament, interest, definitions, experience, etc. How much are we divided by real ideological differences, and how much are our conflicts and failures to connect simply outgrowths of peoples’ personalities, likes, and dislikes?

Thinking ... or rather worrying, I guess ... about how disability activists in blogging and social media can be honest and appropriately critical about disability in today's society, without being mean or heartless. It seems like there's always a risk of challenging but positive discussions descending into sanctimony, scolding, and personal axe-grinding. Or, am I just concern-trolling?

Figure out how disability activists and people who are excited about disability culture can reach out to disabled people who are not engaged in either movement or community … who don’t care, or claim not to care, about any sort of disability community or disability issues. What drives them away, and can we do anything about it? Should we even try?

Is it possible to bridge the gap between adults with disabilities who are disability-conscious, and parents of disabled kids who rub us the wrong way, and who apparently find us extremely annoying? How much of this conflict is about different ways of understanding disability, and how much is a deeper and more inherent disconnect between parents and kids, between people doing parenting now, and people who have in the past been on the receiving end of “Special Needs parenting?”

Are there ways for individuals with disabilities to pursue practical strategies for life with disabilities in an ableist world, while avoiding internalized ableism and the futility of too much “respectability politics.”

And, after that sentence, is the terminology we create and use to describe our experiences helpful, or off-putting and jargon-y? If it’s both, how do we find the right balance.

Is that enough to go on? I’m open to other ideas!