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Ruthie's Challenge to Us All
by Rus Cooper-Dowda
I have a young friend named Ruthie who gradually became disabled over many years. Her severe lupus.
symptoms began while she was still a toddler. I met her when she was still in pre-school.
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Like Ruthie, people with disabilities who have insufficiently acknowledged talent are already at work diverting the riverbed
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That was when she challenged me over why we only said "gratefuls" over the food we were about to eat at the dinner table. Ruthie pointed out that a lot of time could be saved by meditating over the food before we took it out of the bags upon returning from the grocery store! I thought that was a good point.
But for her there was an even larger one. Before the food got to the table, she said, it was at the store, in the truck, sitting at the warehouse, getting processed, being harvested, weeded and even planted. Human energy and concern happened at each step. Therefore, Ruthie asked, "Why aren't we mentioning those people and those places, too?" Another good point.
She challenged me then to be fair.
Later, as a second grader, when Ruthie could still ride a bicycle on the days her pain was less, she actually got a new one -- and yet another sibling -- on Christmas Day. Her mother made a big ceremony out of giving her both. Ruthie thought it obvious that the gift with wheels was the better deal. It was certainly less work for her.
She fully expected me to be able to see through her eyes the new brother, the new bike and the increasing pain attached to being involved with both.
Ruthie challenged me then to see exactly who she was and what she actually needed.
Much later, I began to truly understand Ruthie's great love for all living creatures, and her deep understanding of how we are all related one to another.
She took in every disabled, hurting or abused animal that came her way. They received a level of care that she herself continued to need and never got. Ruthie's family made her give all her animals away every time they moved. That added up to a lot of loss. Her family moved nineteen times between her first and twelfth year in public school.
She challenged me then to be as resourceful and compassionate as she was.
In her early twenties, Ruthie became even more disabled. She needed the support of her community in new and larger ways. Her big heart, and her ability to initiate caring, did not change a bit. But, as with most people with disabilities, she still has to teach that every day -- on both her "good" days and her "bad" ones.
Ruthie continues to challenge others to understand. She has been doing that for most of her life.
The able-bodied people around her ought to realize how fortunate they are to have Ruthie around. She is an important part of both their most vital present, and their most promising future. Ruthie's ability to help change the world hinges on their ability to believe and trust that she can do just that.
Like Ruthie, people with disabilities who have insufficiently acknowledged talent are already at work diverting the riverbed for the better. We are only asking society to go with the flow, to quit making us feel like we are always swimming upstream.
The young person with disabilities that I know named Ruthie is challenging us all now to locate all the other Ruthies in our midst. They need each other.
We need each of them.
Rus Cooper-Dowda is a minister and freelance writer in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Posted Oct. 1, 2002
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