Comments on: Stilts: a story

By: Terry

Terry — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:07:02 +0000

One of my first jobs when I settled in VT 25 years ago was to work in construction. I was facinated watching the drywall tapers who would gracefully stride through the “new rooms” to tape up the sheetrock while on their stilts. They spent their whole day on different sized stilts depending on how high the ceiling was that they needed to reach. But they were easily thwarted if there was any kind of debris or obsticle on the floor. They could only be so graceful and so perfect in their vocation if the floor was hard, smooth and free of even the smallest debris. When they tripped, they would fall hard, really hard. Mud would fly from their trowels and they would cuss themselves blue. I felt horrible when they fell; I was responsible for preparing the rooms for them to come in and tape. I felt sometimes that it was my fault they fell, that they “failed”. I have the same feeling when my son regresses from his jags of progress; somehow I failed him. But maybe its just the best he can do that day – that moment and I need to cut myself and him some slack.
Once again, you have illuminated another perspective for me.
I visit your blog when I can.. thanks for sharing… be well

By: Rachel Hibberd

Rachel Hibberd — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 22:19:16 +0000

Cool!

By: Fledchen

Fledchen — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 14:56:00 +0000

I really like this allegory.

By: bullet

bullet — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 08:05:26 +0000

It’s an excellent metaphor/story. Is it related to your loss of verbal speech? Or, if you prefer, your mind’s decision to use a communication that made more sense to you?

By: Jonathan Hinek

Jonathan Hinek — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 07:08:00 +0000

A great analogy, with many relevant interpretations. It would be a really good children’s book, I think. The lesson is obvious, and the stilt-walking could be fleshed out and colorfully illustrated. But I also think you could write a short version with a ‘translation’ for internet circulation.

By: andreashettle

andreashettle — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 05:56:44 +0000

I agree, it would be great if you can eventually come back to this and flesh it out some more. I understood it just fine — but I suspect that might be partly because I’ve read so much of your blog at this point that I was able to extrapolate from certain elements of the story to other things you have written here and thereby understand what you were geting at. Plus, I also was able to draw on my own experiences with certain disabilities. But this is a story that ought to be read by a wider audience, including people who maybe haven’t read anything else by you. Fleshing it out and clarifying some of the premises might help. (For example, I caught on to the idea that others didn’t notice that the boy was using stilts the whole time — they just thought he was always that tall, and that’s why they were confused when he fell down. But someone without awareness of disabilities and all the ways that disabled people sometimes have to “fake it” to get by and sometimes really CAN “pass,” or people who are unfamiliar with certain elements of your own story, might be a little slower on the uptake. At least, that’s my guess.)

Love the story. And what’s great is that I think there are probably people with a wide range of disabilities who can relate to at least certain elements of this story. As a person with ADD who passes well enough that most people either don’t know or refuse to believe my diagnosis, I kind of have my own pair of invisible stilts.

By: Zaecus

Zaecus — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 03:53:38 +0000

As far as analogies go, it is a near-perfect representation of my life so far, though what happened to me was more akin to being pushed off the stilts by someone who discovered I was using them and, as a result, acquiring a profound fear of getting back up on the stilts again.

Leading to me learning a good deal more about myself without and how I -actually- work since I’m no longer expending so much energy on the effort of not being me.

Thank you.

By: Ook!

Ook! — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 01:13:49 +0000

I think the brevity is a strength, actually. It’d be interesting to see where it could go if you lengthen it, but having a short version makes it easier to get people to read it. (So, definitely keep the short version around even if you do write v2.0!)

By: ballastexistenz

ballastexistenz — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 23:14:24 +0000

You know… I really ought to write it out into a longer story. I know pretty much how I could do it, and yeah you’re right there’s so much more that can be fleshed out. I wrote this one in less than five minutes. (And as can possibly be guessed, it vaguely resembles my own life. Not entirely — the analogy is not perfect, and does not account for certain things — but certainly in some respects. Which makes it relatively easy to come up with conversation fodder.)

By: Helen

Helen — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 23:10:44 +0000

I love this story!
I want to see it fleshed out, but mainly so I can spend longer reading it. I want to see more about him learning to run, climb… I want to see him choosing which stilts to wear. I want to hear the conversations as people are perplexed…
GREAT story!