peter
“Somehow this incident really stuck with me. One day I was getting into my car from my wheelchair and an alcoholic person sitting on the ground next to me expressed that he felt sorry for me. Empathy is a strange thing. He was so sure he was in a better state than I am. When you see an alcoholic person on the street, you don’t always feel sorry for him. Why is that? Like, who knows what they had to go through to get there? So why do you feel sorry for a wheelchair user straight away? How do you know if that person isn’t actually happier than you are? I face challenges every day, just like you. Maybe mine are a bit different sometimes, but please don’t feel sorry for us. It’s the last thing we need!”