I went to target yesterday and was bored. They have these electric powered golf kart like things for people who can’t walk. So for a laught I put my daughter in the front basket and took it for a spin.

It was too slow to really enjoy the ride. But what really was interesting was how people reacted to me.

They didn’t look at me! I didn’t exist!

When walking in public there is an acceptable time limit to how long you can look at somebody. You glance at them and then look away. Sort of saying, “I see you, but I’m not looking long enough to make a connection.”

But I had become a disabled person and I discovered that the rules had changed. Disable people don’t get looked at as long. People glance at you and immediately look away as if they hadn’t seen you. It is exactly what I do when I see a homeless person.

I totally didn’t exist. I was not part of the shopping crowd. I was a lone cripple.

And then when the undesirable is looking another way you stare at them as long as you want.

The only time people paid attention to me was when I tried to get into the elevator to go to another level in the store. Everyone got into a fluster trying to give me space. People gave me an unnatural amount of space. All of a sudden I had the whole elevator to myself and they squeezed up against the walls.

It was a really creepy feeling.

Tags: disabled

This entry was posted on Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.