Truth Floods

You know, out here in the desert, when it rains it pours. Every crack and crevice fills with water and flows. Every wash becomes a river while the roads turn into muddy bogs. If you get more than half an inch of nature's blessing, then you know it is time to consider using the four wheel drive. You see, our road isn't a bad road but, hey when it rains, it isn't a road at all. If you're wise enough, you'll wait for a couple more hours to let the Sun shine but if you have to be somewhere and you can't back out. I reckon that is when you have to consider the time needed to start walking the distance.

Got yourself a pair of boots?
Yea? Let's go...

Now, walking in the desert during or after a rain isn't the easiest thing to do. The first thing want to do is stay out of low places such as washes, draws, creeks, and valleys. Like I said, when it rains, it pours and when it pours it flashes.

Flood!
A prickly pear floats by...

Your boots get soaked and caked with mud. Hot spots surface on your feet. You don't see 'em but you sure feel 'em with the squishing and sloshing and the squeaking. Up a hill. Down a hill. Around a bend and through the acacia with their catclaws. Passing millipedes and tarantulas, who like me, are warring with the rain and mud. You wipe your wet face and trudge on with each boot weighing 10 pounds.

Gotta do whatcha gotta do.
Places to go and tasks to complete.
It's like that.

I'm thinking through it all.
D/deaf.

You know, yes, I am a Texan.
Yes, I am a Deaf person.

I got all that understood but I really don't need to be worried about that kind of crap when the argument starts from deafness to deaf to Deaf to deaf and back to deafness. I think we all understand that and if we do, why the hell are we still poking with it?

There are bigger fish to fry, ya know?

You can diss me with "disability".
You tell me, I speak well.
You can audit my audibility.
You tell me, I suck at ASL.

You can vilify me all you want and that is, as I've probably said before, mighty fine with me. I ain't gonna blame you for doing what you do because it's not your fault. You know whose fault it is but I know you won't stand to point the finger. It's also not your fault that you are like that. No worries, mateys.

I will keep walking and talking. I will keep sharing what no one can take from me and that is my deafhood. My deafhood is just as much my childhood and personhood. You wanna argue about languages and words. Fuck! If I signed this shit you would be standing there with bricks dropping out of your ass because it is not just ASL or English or whatever communication option I was brought up with. It's the Truth that even hearing people will understand.

Now you ask me where I get the confidence and the ego?
Ha! says the puppet poster boy.

Not bragging here, but man, I can get any person to listen to me and I can clear any argument with them when it comes to talking about the psychological and emotional side effects that come with the demands of a "superior" being. In this case, hearing people. So you as a hearing person, what do you know about people who don't listen? What do you know about not being able to hear in the midst of it all? That kind of ignorance! Know this, it is actually humbling to have these conversations.

Sure, it's a fact that they are many and we are few but that doesn't mean shit to me because there is more to live for than their vanity of sound. (Please note, individuals are not the system and we the people is more like wee the people)

The rain has stopped. The dirt is still and the mud is dry. Everything is clean! I'm still walking and I'm still talking while she listens.

I'm pretty CERTAIN that there will be a time when we are recognized and respected to a point that even the naysayer will side with the Truth and stand honestly comfortable with their being a Deaf person. Until that point, I'm still going to share my stories about my deafhood and I know you will continue to do the same. It is ongoing, never ending and the best thing about it, you can't have it taken from you whether you identify yourself as a little d, Big D, hard of hearing, or hearing impaired. No one can take the experience of being you, a person with less than perfect hearing, away.

It's yours and I think that is a pretty simple thing to grasp. If you want to get into semantics, I'll leave that to the people who want to avoid the truth and I'll move clear out of the way.

I don't need to be washed away in a flood of confusion. I know where I'm going and much credit for that goes to our creator. Remember, I may be human and I am far from being perfect, but I know I'm doing what I've been sent to do. I can't deny that Truth.