Limitations

A reader objected to an earlier post,

"If a person's potential is extremely limited, and he achieves it, then it is awesome." 

Hm... Here I must disagree with you. I think the idea that PWD is limited in potential by some absolute measure is not quite right. Instead, I'd argue that any such limitation is imposed upon them from an ableist world. I think it is an important distinction to make, as it speaks to the inherent equality of all people.

I am reminded of Aldous Huxley's description of the denizens of "Brave New World" as living their lives inside bottles:

"...Each one of us, of course," the Controller meditatively continued, "goes through life inside a bottle. But if we happen to be Alphas, our bottles are, relatively speaking, enormous."

I think that a better metaphor would be that we live our lives inside of balloons.  Some of us -- through genetics and upbringing -- are blessed with larger balloons; while others -- again, through no fault of our own, are more constricted within smaller balloons.  Certainly, as parents, we try to "inflate" our children's balloons as much as we can.

That said, most of us never use the full extent of the balloons we find ourselves in, while others reach the perimeter and push against the "latex", expanding them beyond what would have been expected.

The balloons therefore represent both our limitations and our potential for limitlessness.