Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body

by Rebekah Taussig

More of us than we’d like to believe live one emergency room visit away from bankruptcy or avoid getting that lump checked because it’s probably nothing and who can afford to pay just to be safe? There are those who will be paying off medical bills into old age from the motorcycle accident they had in their early twenties or the open-heart surgery performed on their newborn baby. In case you can’t quite tell where I stand on this issue: this is some bullshit. The single most universal trait we all share is having a body, and all of us, no matter what, are susceptible to the frailties of that body. All bodies age, weaken under the power of germs, viruses, diseases, pain, and injury, require intervention and maintenance, rebel and go rogue. All of our bodies are at risk (some much more than others), and there could not be more at stake. This is inescapably true—and yet. Not all of our bodies have the same access to care, and let’s be clear: all of our bodies deserve care.