hello all, I missed you all Last weekend, I was blessed to be given an opportunity to serve as an interpreter at the Disabled Peoples International World Assembly in Korea. When a man of middle age on a wheel chair asked me to translate, "I cannot use my hands, feet, neck, arms, legs, but only tongue and brain. People stare me down. The system in this society's does not allow me to do anything and no employer gives me a chance. What do you suppose I do?" into English, I was lost at words and I knew someone's basic rights was being ignored and trampled. Oh man. it was something I wasn't exposed to before. Today, upon flipping the pages of my old journal, I found a short entry I wrote a year back when I was traveling by myself on a train in Korea. It was on two deaf people that sat next to me on the train. --- 09.05.2006 Have you ever seen deaf people quarrel. Yes, I mean quarrel. Instead of toning up their voice to a higher level or choosing vulgar choice of words to bring down the other, they remained gentle yet with bigger motions. No words are exchanged but only hand gestures in the air. This way, peace is preserved. I started thinking that maybe language - or verbal conversation - between people only ineffectively serves its true purpose, which is to communicate in love. Language can hurt people, discourage people, give people false hope, illusion, and distort facts. If we could only communicate through gazing each other's eyes or by the facial expressions, or by maintaining a distance where emotion is transmitted through the air and frequency, no one will have to suffer from the abusive and shallow nature of language. Two deaf people quarrelling through a sign language; their method of arguing did not involve unnecessary choice of words as a verbal language does. I thought their method of communication was far more civilized and honest. Maybe peace could be found in a silent handshake, not in a verbal exchange of "feeling good words". Communication through body and with no words contains truth, honesty and no superficiality. --- this week just made me think a lot on the disabled people and what comes out of their limited physical and mental conditions which are far more mature than what we enjoy as non-disabled. Their hope, perseverance, innocence, positive attitude, and smile made me humble. something to think about. | 
