A while back I saw a stage play in Morristown, NJ where the central character was a young woman in a wheelchair. The play was well done and I was riveted by the intricate plot. I was so convinced that this woman was a wheelchair user, that I was dumbfounded when at the end of the play, she stood up and walked across the stage to take her curtain calls.
Preconceptions and stereotypes shape our view of others and the lesson here is perhaps, we should not rush to judge others, but allow reality to reveal truth.
Interestingly, my book “A Girl Like Me’ is set in Madison, NJ right next door.
As the book began to take shape, it irritated me more and more that the wheelchair had this broken weld. I took it to a commercial welder in a nearby town. When I opened the trunk of the car, the three men inside all came over to see what I had. They lifted the chair out and took it inside for evaluation. I explained about the chair and how I used it in my book. They argued on how best to fix it. It was quickly repaired and then the new weld was smoothed down and polished. I tried to pay for the repair but they refused. I promised them a copy when the book was finished. Thanking them, I took the chair home and set it aside. I had it firmly in my mind. More scenes came to me and the chair receded into the background. More soon.
