People who live in tourist destinations inevitably have a different way
of looking at their famous home than someone who goes there to visit --
even if they visit often.
Take
a coastal lighthouse. Tourists see the lighthouse as a site to see.
Something to enjoy and experience, for a while. They may feel very
attached to it as a symbol of their favorite vacation spot. It reminds
them of fun.
But that same lighthouse might have a very different
meaning to the native. To the native, it may be the landmark they steer
their boat home by, maybe even that time in that serious storm. It may
have saved their life. It may be much more than a fun diversion.
This
dynamic came to my mind -- but in a context more appropriate to the
Disaboom community -- when I came across this article about The Clinic
restaurant in Singapore.
Apparently one room of the quirky
restaurant uses wheelchairs as dining seating (note the photo in the
upper left of the article linked to above).
What to make of that?
Is
it pharma-kitsch, as The Clinic's website insists, or is it an insult?
Is this fun or is it evidence of someone who just doesn't understand?
The journalist in me, trained to see not black and white but shades of gray, can see some merit in both of these arguments.
But
in the end I think it's probably more harmless than bad. Using a
wheelchair to sit at a table while you're dining out is certainly not
as permanent of a situation as most wheelchair users face. But even
that short time spent rolling on another person's wheels might have the
side effect of creating some understanding or help those who just seem
to have an aversion to a wheelchair.
What do you think? Convince me.
