3 ms·
> I’d always heard amputees talk about the stares and the acute awareness of being viewed as different. During my first shoot for the NewsHour with one arm, I w
by xtracto 12y ago
> I’d always heard amputees talk about the stares and the acute awareness of being viewed as different. During my first shoot for the NewsHour with one arm, I was wearing a blazer when I met a researcher I was to interview. She left the lab, and I took my jacket off. When she returned, it was a good thing she wasn’t sipping her coffee, because she would have offered up an amazing spit take. As we both looked at my stump, I shrugged and said, “It happens.”
I can relate with him on this. I lost the distal phalange of my left thumb when I was about 6. It is not very evident, but every once in a while colleagues discover that, and ask "what happened to your finger". My story has getting shorter and shorter as years pass... nowadays it just goes "I lost it in an accident". I stil feel uncomfortable phasing that question.
- jessaustin 12y agoSince I have only one eye, I can relate to your annoyance at "the question". I've coped with this by concocting creative and somewhat-unlikely lies. "I lost it in a knife fight." If the questioner is an acquaintance with whom I share one mutual friend, I'll say that mutual friend poked my eye out. The goal is to tell them something just barely plausible enough that their confusion will make them more uncomfortable than their presumption made me.