It’s My World Too
Accepting Challenges, Embracing Life
by
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Preface
The story that I tell in this book is largely one of a happy life. I am blind, and I have been blind since birth. I have engaged my world and the events that have made its history in my time. I grew up in a strong family, received an excellent education, had a successful and challenging career, and have achieved a satisfying personal life. Life is good for me, but as in the lives of all people, I have faced my own challenges. It is in the context of living in the world as a blind person that my story unfolds, and it is as a blind person that I have claimed my place. Throughout my life I have often been told, "You can't". My answer has been, "Yes, I can". I, as many other blind and disabled persons, have faced the doubt and skepticism of others, as we have tried to make our way in the world. Often the negativity of others has been inspired by the best of intentions. They have feared for our safety, or sought to protect us from the disappointment associated with what they believe to be certain failure, or simply concerned that our efforts were absurd. I have learned and accepted my limitations, but no one has the right to set those boundaries for me. Only I can define my limits. The challenge of every person with a disability is to be strong enough to reject the condescension and destructive negativity of others, while remaining open to their genuine good will. This is not always easy to do, but it is not pleasant or productive to live in a constant state of anger. I have steered as best I can through the rocks presented by this challenge. I hope my story can be helpful, as others try to travel the same course.
It's My World Too is the title of this book, and it is also the title of a planned series. We have chosen this title, because it states a claim. Often persons with disabilities have been forced to sit on the sidelines of life, while others got into the game. My title proclaims that I and others refuse to be spectators, while others play. We are claiming the world for ourselves. It is my world too. This book is my story of how I have gone about making good that claim. We will tell the stories of others in subsequent publications. We believe these stories provide important testimony to the strength of the human desire to be a part of the inclusive human community, and they also provide proof that our social order has come a long way toward fulfilling the promise that was first made in the Declaration of Independence. Each of us has the right to equality, liberty, and happiness. Our stories tell how we have taken possession of that fundamental right.
Declaring a right and making the claim stick are two very different things. If one is a person with a disability, one must deal openly and honestly with his or her disability and find ways to transcend its inherent limitations. One must master the emotional and attitudinal barriers that accompany the stereotypes that have been constructed over time immemorial, and one must learn the knowledge and skills that every person needs to claim a spot in the game of life. The stories that we tell trace the overcoming of these challenges in everyday life. Our goal is to inform, but if the reader gathers a deeper appreciation for the value of life from our affirmations, we will be pleased; for we ground our lives and our struggles in the strongly held belief that life is valuable and fully participating in it is the best way to experience the joy of living.
Our stories are not tales of easy triumph or fantasies of shallow, happy success. They are narratives of hard work and disappointment, accomplishment and failure, happiness and despair. They are the stories of real people who live in the real world, who claim their places in the face of real challenges, and who affirm life in full awareness of its capacity to have a dark side.
This project has taken many years to come to fruition. It began fifteen years ago, when my wife and I initiated the publication of a magazine that we called Disability Life. We wanted to share the lives of persons with disabilities with a larger reading public. We published DL for over a year, until we ran out of funds, but rearmed with enthusiasm, advanced technology, and some new innovations in the publishing business, we are ready to try again. We hope to work with the disabilities community to share its many worthy stories. We invite anyone who has a story to tell to contact us. We can be reached through our web site, it'smyworldtoo.com.
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About the Book
In 1941, on a farm outside Troy, Missouri, a boy named Homer Page was born. Blind since birth, Homer has lived his life in vibrant determination to be a part of the game. He has known success and failure, felt hope and heartache, and experienced joy and despair. He struggled to find the courage to act and the wisdom to accept what he could not change. Through it all, he never let circumstances become limitations.
Homer received two letters in wrestling from the University of Missouri, earned his doctorate from the University of Chicago, and went on to teach at the University of Colorado. He later pursued and enjoyed a career in elective office. He is a leader in the disability rights movement and has lectured on the topic of the rehabilitation of the blind in both Sweden and Poland.
In this memoir, he shares the story of his life—the challenges and disappointments that he overcame on the way to a meaningful and successful personal and professional career. But he also tells a larger story about living with disability in mainstream America. Homer explores the joy and pain that he and others have experienced as American society has changed over the past seventy years.
Most of all, however, his is the story of a realist who refuses to give up. In the end, it is a story of the affirmation of life and the joy of living.
About the Author
Homer L. Page has been blind since birth. He earned a doctorate from the University of Chicago and taught at the University of Colorado. A native of Missouri, he has held political office and served as a civil rights advocate. He and his wife, Angie, live in Columbia, Missouri.