When I saw that question posted to the Steno Support Group some time ago, I wrote the following, and I’d like to share it now:
“It can be a sign of many things. In the context you are asking, I believe it is a sign of strength. Being able to admit to ourselves that we are overwhelmed, that we feel like crying, that we need to cry, that’s a powerful thing. Suppression of negative emotions can cause physical and mental health problems. There is nothing stronger than keeping yourself healthy so that you do not harm yourself or others.
Look at all the people that wander the world looking down on others for not suppressing their feelings. Do we believe that it is healthy to look down on others because others have not mastered the suppression of emotion? No. We know it is not healthy for them or the people they belittle. What is unhealthy makes us weaker.
So if all it takes to be strong and wash away the toxicity is a good cry, choose strength.”
P.S.
Veritext.org now forwards to Stenonymous because I’m King of the Trolls.
And now for some creative musing…
But the truth was I stopped caring about the profession a long time ago…
Such things were the purview of Dom Tursi.
He truly was the last of us.
We who cared about the history.
Did I ever tell you, friends?
I started writing to preserve that history. I saw the organizations of our ilk were malleable.
They would erase history to save themselves.
Who would record the erasure of the scribes?
We are, after all, a pixel in a much larger picture.
But what do you call a picture with missing pixels?
Broken.
But I no longer cared for the profession.
It was the people within I loved.
And some loved me.
You would break them?
Oh, I am not a violent man.
But how dare you?
I will break you.
I will tear down your institutions.
I will make your apathy uncomfortable.
I will butcher your sacred cows.
And I admit I have said all this before.
Those who lambast repetition do not understand the art of spreading a message.
For each time it is repeated, a new soul joins with mine.
They trust me.
They believe in me.
They are me?
I am them.
Some call it the Butterfly Effect.
We call it living.
We will make a difference.
Because our neurodivergence makes connections some cannot readily make.
We will win.
Because we dream of rewriting history…
…to suit the people that love us.
For we are no different from you.
