in the mental fatigue induced by physical exhaustion, I have realized that I may be doing
myself and others a disservice for not using all at my utility—to make an inimitable
contribution to our understanding of social life at this time. And for a rather inane reason
related to the following. I had formerly appreciated the whole idea the ASA was sort of
like an electronically-mediated community, like through social and professional email
lists, in that most people we only know through texts (minds)… and meeting them as live
bodies is a real hoot... that I wanted the same freedom as everyone else has access to
(judged by work before by appearance… that the ideas generated positively influence the
way one is perceived in person... with tolerance for eccentricities, as well as things like
facial paralysis). At my core (if you were to reduce it to that), I want to be seen as a
scholar/colleague first… and even though I may have had exposure to such an extensive
history of extreme experiences like brain surgeries and such, they do not need to be the
primary filter through which others view me or my work. (I do not think you have to
have disabilities to represent an informed perspective, per se. But I do think that there
are aspects of the EVERYDAY, long-term, lived experience of chronic illness, and a
mobility and sensory impairment that are very complex and involve a lot of “minor”
details that really add up, and that very few people are exposed to in an intimate way
(until perhaps they are much, much older…. And even then, it is often gradual, rather
than immediate, with irregular cleavages.) But the big thing, perhaps, is that things are in
that greatly uncertain thing again… and I want to be producing some stuff that has value
in a lasting sense. I want to do some of it now, not because I am impatient, but because I
do not know how much longer I’ll be in this great of shape. And this does not even touch
upon the whole identity thing many years ago, when I first distanced myself from, then
Convention