A Piece of the Puzzle
While reading Amy Cohen Efron’s post late last night, I couldn’t help but be struck by the deep irony of what she was saying. She faintly echoed what Ryan Commerson, I believe, was trying to say in his film, Re-Defining Deaf. And Amy faintly echoed what I said a long time ago on DeafDC.com, that the hearing world tended to view us as a caricature, because they see us only as that deaf person.
As the blogger of The Deaf Edge, I’ve become more and more conscious of that fact. Being on such a visible level, it becomes too easy for many to see merely one puzzle piece that we’re presenting to the world, and think that shows the entire picture of who we are. And so they try to hammer the interlocking edges of their puzzle into ours, while we scream in agony, “No! Not that one! This one!” Or they try to rip out a piece of us, because the edges are too colorful, too sharp, too discordant… It doesn’t fit into the puzzle that is thought to be our stage.
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
- Shakespeare
But the beauty of this is that ultimately when a piece is created, an interlocking piece is also created. We just have to find these interlocking ones without a script, by our own means, and that’s what makes the stage so great – the improv act on it.
4 Comments
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Karen Mayes said,
December 15, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Yup… the Earth is just a ballroom for all kinds of dancers, and even the ones who stumbles and shuffles. ;o)
White Ghost said,
December 15, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Life is full of surprises. Everybody sure have changed their own paths.
Growing and changing in many different ways do not mean that they are in the same path forever.
There is a but.
We are in the earth. We are in the wind. We are in the sun. We are in the rain.
Nevertheless, we have lived with the society that we don’t always echoed. Live with it.
Dianrez said,
December 15, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Amy is saying that one could be expressing oneself not just as a Deaf person remarking on uniquely Deaf issues, but as whole people experiencing the wider world and interests.
How about how we bring our uniquely Deaf experience to these interests? For we are indeed whole people with an added dimension, not a subtracted one.
For example, if one were an artist, how does being Deaf enrich the art? How does it expand on the perceptions, techniques, expression? I’d like to see more blogging on this.
Bill said,
December 16, 2008 at 2:17 am
“that the hearing world tended to view us as a caricature, because they see us only as that deaf person.”
I think some of the reason for that may be the invisibility, and (self-imposed? language/language barrier based? discrimination based?) segregation of the deaf community?
I think we as humans view most groups as a stereotype, until we get to know some individuals within a group – whether based on languages, cultural/ethnic heritage, religious or political viewpoints…
Once we start seeing a black president, a deaf woman dancing, a smart successful female corporate exec….our views of those groups of people begin to widen and move beyond the limits of “typical”.
[offtopic observation]
I am starting to tire of the trite/true “Deaf people can do anything but hear”.
I wonder if that phrase is helpful, because of the many other layers of meaning in the word “hear”.
(“Deaf people can do anything except process sound through their ears” is not very pithy, and still has that nasty “but” in it).
But then again, it’s late at night, and I have stopped receiving helpdesk calls, so I should stop writing and go to bed.
[/end offtopic observation]