I think I need to find a bigger place
‘Cause when you have more than you think
You need more space

Eddie Vedder, Society

They had all been talking in their own language but this day, on Pentacost, they understood each other.

We’ve been listening a lot to the soundtrack of Into the Wild lately, by Eddie Vedder. The more I listened to it, the better it got.

One song, Society, changed my thinking.

When we talk about the human rights of people with disabilities, their right to inclusion, equality, company, participation, we always do this from the perspective of Society. The perception is that the person has a right not to loose Society. Which is one, maybe the correct?, way to look at it.

But what if it was Society who was loosing out not integrating those with a disability, isolating them, getting them out of mind and out of sight – which is what the reality is for many, especially for those with a sABI.

For whatever reason it never seems to dawn on us how much worse Society, how much we, would be off without them? How much Society would loose not having them around? Have you ever thought about this?

I didn’t know always, to be very honest, but I do know now that I would not be who I am, that I would be incomplete without Pádraig and what he is giving me.

We need to turn things on their head at times.

Here are the last picture from our trip of a lifetime.

A walk through Victoria, Canada, passing. by the “Irish Times”. A day room in the cheapest Seattle airport motel, the kind where you’d expect to see Norma Bates. A Chinese looking road sign which we only understood on second thoughts to mean: No pedestrian crossing. A traffic light sign making sure that all angles were covered. My new watch telling me what I already knew.

The Decision Support Services (DSS) have made available the background story videos of their nine Champions, Pádraig being one of them.

They have also launched their TV ad campaign you might have seen on the telly. Pádraig was watching it the other day on RTÉ One.

Even if we speak the same language we need to be inspired to understand each other.

Even if we think we understand each other, we need, at times, to consciously try and see ‘reality’ from different perspectives.

Pádraig couldn’t stop smiling when we shared stories from his Alaskan adventuress.

Sometimes I wonder whether he needs more space, because he has more than we think, and he needs space for it.

We need to give that space to him, even, or especially, if he cannot ask for it himself.