I'm proud of what I achieve in spite of my disabilities. I am proud of who I am as a person (which of course includes my health problems). But none of this means I'm proud of the disabilities themselves.
Being proud of who you are includes everything, from disabilities to height and eye colour.
No-one's self-worth should be reduced over these kinds of features. The kind of features that aren't achievements, the kind of things that just are.
Equally, it doesn't make sense to be proud of them, for our self-worth to be enhanced by them. I don't see how that's a viable option.
Likewise, disabilities should neither reduce nor enhance self-worth. They're a fact of reality: nothing more.
Being proud of who you are includes everything, from disabilities to height and eye colour.
No-one's self-worth should be reduced over these kinds of features. The kind of features that aren't achievements, the kind of things that just are.
Equally, it doesn't make sense to be proud of them, for our self-worth to be enhanced by them. I don't see how that's a viable option.
Likewise, disabilities should neither reduce nor enhance self-worth. They're a fact of reality: nothing more.
Pride should come from achieving something, when you've done something.
But in most cases, people don't do anything to get disabilities. Being proud of something you didn't do seems bizarre.
(If your actions have resulted in a disability, chances are it wasn't a sensible action: that's not something you should be proud about.)
Being disabled isn't the achievement. Instead, the accomplishment is rising to the challenges it presents. The accomplishment is learning to love your self. To improve your self-worth if being disabled otherwise created a sense of worthlessness.
But in most cases, people don't do anything to get disabilities. Being proud of something you didn't do seems bizarre.
(If your actions have resulted in a disability, chances are it wasn't a sensible action: that's not something you should be proud about.)
Being disabled isn't the achievement. Instead, the accomplishment is rising to the challenges it presents. The accomplishment is learning to love your self. To improve your self-worth if being disabled otherwise created a sense of worthlessness.
The same thing, I suppose, could be said about pride in being gay. That too isn't an accomplishment.
Pride events never feel like people being proud about being gay. Rather, the pride comes from being confident and brave enough to be out and open. (This is consistent with phrase 'out and proud' because the pride is literally about being out, not with the gayness itself.)
So the gayness itself isn't what makes people proud: it's everything around it. I suppose 'proud of being gay' is a shortcut for this?
Maybe, then, the same thing could be said about being proud of your disabilities. Maybe it's just a shortcut for saying you're proud of all the things you manage despite the disabilities.
Pride events never feel like people being proud about being gay. Rather, the pride comes from being confident and brave enough to be out and open. (This is consistent with phrase 'out and proud' because the pride is literally about being out, not with the gayness itself.)
So the gayness itself isn't what makes people proud: it's everything around it. I suppose 'proud of being gay' is a shortcut for this?
Maybe, then, the same thing could be said about being proud of your disabilities. Maybe it's just a shortcut for saying you're proud of all the things you manage despite the disabilities.
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