Dignity

The protagonist in the television commercial was a man who appeared to be a senior citizen.He stood in a bathroom and forlornly told the audience about how asking his adult son to help him bathe was the hardest thing he ever had to do. But never fear, he said, because he had one of those walk-in bathtubs installed. So now he can continue bathing himself and thus he has his dignity back. I just shook my head and laughed when I heard that and I was glad that I’ve been crippled for too long to internalize that kind of stuff. Otherwise, I might actually start to believe that shit like that could be true and therefore I will forever be without dignity because I cannot (and never will be able to) bathe myself. I guess it never occurred to me that being crippled automatically makes me undignified. I can’t help it. That’s how I was raised. If I’m undignified, it’s for a lot more reasons than that. There are a lot of definitions of the word dignity flying around out there. I stopped looking after I looked up the word seven times because none of the definitions that I found came anywhere close to equating dignity with the ability to bathe yourself. So I guess that I will continue to shake my head and laugh whenever I am assaulted by that commercial, knowing that it’s all a bunch of b.s. that’s designed to sell walk-in bathtubs. Except that on some level it’s not so funny. Some cripples might see that commercial and actually come to believe that dignity can be purchased for the price of a walk-in bathtub (plus installation). And whomever convinced them that that’s how it works can expect to be forgiven in the name of capitalism. Because the most sacred right that we all have is the right to try to make a living, no matter who gets hurt. (Please support Smart Ass Cripple and help us keep going. Just click below to contribute.) https://www.paypal.me/smartasscripple?fbclid=IwAR2qrql-UFH19OepgeaCG4WmblyNylb27k2q8eYxXHH