Disability and resulting human compensation for it.

The exhibition is now in its third week and we were wondering whether two weeks would have been enough and is it dead on its feet now. I thought so, but the afternoon at the exhibition proved me so wrong. There was a steady stream of visitors all afternoon and someone had made their way from Maidstone to come to it especially (and its a hidden away venue - not easy to find) so that was particularly heartening, and we spent a good three quatres of an hour talking too which was very nice. The guest from Maidstone was a special treat for myself as curator and for the exhibition itself. If she is reading this blog, I must encourage her to go for it, do an exhibition with the photography for example, it is so worthwhile and can lead on to other things.

There was also a very nice and posh middle class and middle aged lady who I got talking to at the exhibition. She told me that in life there are some things that should be kept to yourself unless you really trusted someone. My answer ( and I presumed she meant our openness regarding our mental health capacity) was that sometimes someone had to make the first move and also as well as that, the particular experiences that we ( the exhibitors ) have had, has been so life changing and significant that it rendered us unable to keep it to our self.

Then it was how sorry she was for us incapables, or words to that effect, to which I bought her attention to the fact that anyone with any disability or finds themselves compromised in some faculty usually not only learns to live with it, but also compensates for it. I gave the example of how blind people might have enhanced hearing facilities or any other such combination to which she found herself agreeing.

So for us, what is our compensation, this nice lady said she thought that we must have 'psychic' abilities as compensation. Now I don't strictly disagree, its just that I think everyone has psychic abilities and it is nothing special, what I said to her was that our compensation lies in our healing abilities, our art, our ability to entertain etc.

This again goes back to our show piece Vincent, his true life story seems to be covered up somewhat by those who do not want to hear the facts about his mental illnesses and his incarceration in mental hospitals.

Perhaps they just want us to not have any talents, because we can't do a regular nine to five, we have to be patronised, written off, medicated to the land of nod, isolated and forgotten about. Of course our brothers and sisters won't allow this to happen and neither will many of us, but it can be extraordinarily difficult at times, sadly many do give up and mortality rates for mental health service users can be higher than the general population. Although it is not always the case, but I have had that many friends die by taking their own lives, and die from general ill health and neglect, it does sadly ring true.