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The Lance . St. Andrews Presbyterian College Page 5
Campus & City
I'll Keep Pushing My Broom
Bringle's New Book
Phyllis Foglia
Guest Writer
I am writing this article
to inform and enlighten
all people who know
someone with a disabil
ity or who have a dis
ability themselves. I
want to proclaim that I
am proud to be me.
I was bom on August
27, 1969. I weighed 2
lbs. 9 oz. Twenty-six
days after I was born, I
stopped breathing. The
nurse who had left her
station came back in and
gave me mouth-to-
mouth resuscitation,
then oxygen. This ac
tion caused damage to
the motor cells going to
my legs; because of this
I have Cerebral Palsy.
I have been asked if I
am bitter. I can honestly
say I am not. There have
been times in my life
when I ask why my life
could not be made easier
during the hard times. I
know what it is like to be
labeled a "freak,"
"crippled," or "re
tarded." I am not any of
those things.
It is hard to face people
who do not see me as an
equal. When I was in the
second grade I entered a
contest at school. We
had to make an Easter
bonnet using kitchen
utensils. My mom
worked very hard on my
hat. She tied wooden
spoons to a colander and
decorated it with hair
bows. I was the only
person who had a home
made hat of kitchen
utensils. Everyone else
had bought theirs
straight from the store.
The audience was to clap
for the hat they liked
best. The hat they
clapped for was mine.
My mom was sitting
near the judges when
they began to hand out
the prizes. She over
heard one of the judges
say that I couid not be
given a prize, because I
was handicapped. The
judges thought the audi
ence would believe that
1 was given a prize out
of pity, so I didn’t get a
prize. That night was
very hard for me. I
learned that not every
one saw me for what I
was. I was a 7 year-old
who wanted to win a
chocolate Easter bunny.
I am older and wiser
now, and cannot say that
I do not wish for a day of
knowing what it is like
to be "normal." When I
watch figure skating, I
get an overwhelming
urge to know what it
feels like to fly around a
rink. I wonder how it
would feel with the cold
air blowing on my face,
while my body glides
on the ice. I wonder what
it would be like to have
total control of my body.
I do not dwell on my
accident. I am glad I
have been given other
things to replace what I
have lost. I have a brain,
eyes, hands, and legs that
do not work perfectly.
Nothing in life is per
fect. I do not think about
being "disabled." I am
who I am, and I cannot
change that.
A paralyzed victim
wrote: "Before there
were 10,000 things I
could do. Now there are
9,000.1 could dwell on
what I lost - but I prefer
to focus on the 9,000
things left." Icannot live
my life in the past. I can
not waste time on think
ing about the "should
have been's." Life for me
is now. Reverend
Charles Allen wrote:
"When you say a situa
tion or a person is hope
less, you are slamming
the door in the face of
God." Elizabeth Glaser
wrote: "There is no map
for life; unfair things
happen. The challenge
is what you do with these
things."
I have been given a
chance at life. My mom
says, "You can do any
thing you set your mind
to...never say 'I can't."' I
have followed this phi
losophy. I have accom
plished more than I ever
thought I would, but I
have still got a long way
to go.
I have set my mind to
making a difference in
another person's life. I
once read a sign that said,
"You did not make the
world, but you can make
the world a better place."
This is my goal. It is
through the joys, sor
rows, and tears of life
that will help me to en
hance my life so that I
may help others.
Martin Luther King Jr.
said, "Whatever your
life's work is, do it well.
A man should do his job
so well that the living,
the dead, and the unborn
could do it no better.
If it falls your lot to be a
street sweeper, sweep
streets like
Michelangelo painted
pictures, like
Shakespeare wrote po
etry, like Beethoven
composed music; sweep
streets so well that all
the hosts of heaven and
earth will have to pause
and say, 'Here lived a
great street sweeper,
who swept his job well.'"
I will keep pushing my
broom.
Malissa Talbert
Special to the Lance
A professor at St.
Andrews College gives
a personal account of her
struggle with weight and
food obsession in her
new book, "The God of
Thinness, Gluttony and
Other Weighty Mat
ters."
Dr. Mel Bringle,
Jefferson-Pilot Associ
ate Professor of Religion
at St. Andrews, is also
the author of "Despair:
Sickness or Sin?" Her
newest book was pub
lished by Abingdon
Press in March.
Along with offering
a theological perspec
tive on food and bodily
image. Dr. Bringle chal
lenges the emphasis so
ciety currently places on
appearances. She says
she centers specifically
on women because
women are more likely
to be judged by their
appearance and have
problems with food
abuse.
"The purpose of the
book is to call for a dif
ferent appreciation of
beauty that offers for
greater freedom of indi
vidual differences. It's
also particularly to help
women understand the
variety of meanings of
eating — the symbolic
meanings and psycho
logical and spiritual pur
poses of eating. Once we
understand these, then
we have better means of
handling eating as we
see fit."
Along with offering
statistical and historical
information about food
and "weightism," in
America, Dr. Bringle
provides a sometimes
intensely private point
of view about her
"foodlife" in her book:
"Some days I think I
should simply relax....
Other days I think if I
dared to relax, my vora
ciousness would over
whelm me. On such
days, I sob to myself
(uncomfortable as it is
to confess it): 'I would
rather be dead than fat."
"To feel empty is to
feel as if I have cried for
so many days on end
that there are not even
tears remaining, but all
that is left inside me is a
parched and red-raw
cavern that aches and
burns."
continued on page 12
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