Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Deep Sea Diving in a POWER Chair

When Sue Austin received her wheel chair almost two decades ago she was thrilled. It provided for her a sense of freedom she's yearned for. How the world received her celebrating that freedom was in direct opposition with her jubilation. Where she saw freedom, others saw loss. The wheel chair seemed to define a limitation, an inability to do. And so Sue did, what she had dreamed of doing upon receiving her power chair - she recreated the world for herself and others.

In her TED Talk, you get to experience what Sue does while deep sea diving. It is an art she experiences and (thank you, Sue) shares with the world. She invites others to see and feel things she does in the vastness of the sea. Underwater the schools of fish don't stop to question Sue's ability. The dolphins don't gawk at her chair. The whales don't comment on her right to be there. Under water she's floating on air.

And when Sue dives, she soars. And she invites others to do so through her.

Sue believes that it is because in that moment of seeing an object we have associations with transform it's purpose, people's frame of reference shifts. Seeing a wheel chair travel through deep sea diving makes other's understand in a different way, creating a freedom that celebrates the value of difference. One where we see and discover diversity in every facet of the world.

A power chair really does give POWER. The POWER to change. The POWER to inspire. The POWER to move forward.

Thank you, Sue, for that gift.


2 comments:

Thank you for sharing your thoughts & helping others see beautiful too!