Holistic

I'm kinda a holistic-type guy.

Not in the new-agey sense. Conversations with those folks tend to go like this:

Other Person: "Who am I?"
Me: "Uhhh ... I'd guess ... you?"
O: "What is my place in the universe? Where am I?"
M: "Right there. That'd be my guess."
O: "I need to find myself."
M: "Dude, I already told you. You're RIGHT THERE."

And so on. Not a huge peeve, but it does irk me a little.

So in what sense do I mean? It's very important to me that something like the whole of the thing is seen, especially where people are concerned. Especially where I am concerned.

I'm not talking about baring all one's secrets or airing dirty laundry in public. I'm talking about not hiding. Or being hidden. Every one of us has characteristics or experiences that might cause others discomfort. So be it. Not our problem.

Something that is a huge peeve of mine is when folks try to make it our problem. I'm always suspicious of people that are overly concerned about how a third party might react to something said or done by someone else.

A couple caveats: One shouldn't pour gasoline on a fire. That's just common sense. And causing discomfort in others isn't often something you want to do on purpose. It can be a powerful weapon, though.

Like I said, I'm a holistic-type guy. I'm not thinking about this stuff in a vaccuum. I mentioned in an earlier post that I was activly looking into theories of disability. Been reading lots about various questions that the whole topic brings up. But what happens when the answer makes you uncomfortable? Or even the question? Or (worse yet) the fact that there is even a question?

In this modern world, you write a blog post about it.

But not this post. The next one. This one is introduction. I wanted to set the stage without weighing down my next topic. Or case study. Lots of questions in that one. Scant few answers. Except one I'm pretty sure I'm getting right:

Hef got it wrong. A lot of people did.