Lemurs rule

[firecat]

and the San Francisco Zoo's new exhibit for them, which I saw tonight with my sweetie kyubi, is very cool indeed -- they actually get to climb in real, mature trees. There were, according to the keeper, 10 male lemurs sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G and every once in a while they'd start chattering away in an enormous variety of voices, loudly, and sounding to my ear more like 50 critters than 10.

The exhibit mixes together several species; I don't know the names of most of them, but there were white ones with black faces, red ones with black faces and tails, and ring-tails.

It was the annual Members Night at the zoo. We got there late (my fault), so we only got to see the lemurs. It was foggy but that didn't deter the hundreds of families with kids. After the zoo closed we sat on a low wall near the exit and ate sandwiches and watched people leave. I told kyubi that any residual obligation I felt to contribute to the next generation of humans had been swept away. Lots and lots and lots of kids, walking and being carried and being pushed in single strollers and double strollers.

Sometimes when I see lots of kids being pushed in strollers or carried and I go to a kid-friendly place and see strollers for rent, I think about how it's seen as entirely natural that parents should let their kids ride in strollers even if they are capable of walking, but it's more rare to see older people out and about in wheelchairs or scooters, even though probably a large percentage of older people would benefit from them and would be able to go out and do more things if wheelchairs for adults were as casually available as children's strollers.

Comments

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

I think mittelschmertz is saying that the *older people* don't demand wheelchairs, because *they* are embarrased about imposing. The kids don't care if they impose or not.

[firecat]

Yes, I know. But how come older people are more embarrassed about imposing than parents are? Is it something about asking for it for yourself vs. for someone else, do you think? And/or is it that society accepts strollers as something normal and considers wheelchairs abnormal/disturbing? I suspect it's some of both.

[nimma.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know. But how come older people are more embarrassed about imposing than parents are?

(grouchy old person mode on) Hmph. These young people today have no manners, that's the problem. (grouchy old person mode off)

[firecat]

I admit to sometimes feeling that way around families who are simultaneously taking up a lot of room with their strollers and giving me the evil eye because I'm fat and take up more room than the average adult.

Never did like crowds.

[wandra.livejournal.com]

My mother, who has arthritis, recently borrowed a wheelchair to go to London for a demo. She was reluctant to do so because she has such negative associations with it. She won't use one at all in her home town because she really, really doesn't want people to see her in it.

I think part of it is about imposing on the person who has to push her around, but mostly I think it's about drawing attention to herself, and having to explain herself to people who are used to seeing her walking. (She just stays at home on bad days, usually.) She also commented on how irritating it was that she seemed to be invisible in the chair, with people talking to my dad, who was pushing her, but not to her. And I think she dislikes the idea of starting to be, or to look old and infirm. She's only 67, and doesn't look particularly old, and she's had the arthritis most of her life, but I think age is starting to feel more of an issue.

So I think embarrassment is a major factor, but it's not embarrassment at imposing on other people (apart from my dad). It's embarrassment at standing out from the crowd (possibly being seen as attention-seeking in some way?) and at using a wheelchair at all when she doesn't have to use one all the time.

[firecat]

It's embarrassment at standing out from the crowd (possibly being seen as attention-seeking in some way?) and at using a wheelchair at all when she doesn't have to use one all the time.

That makes sense, and I've heard the complaint about people not talking to people in wheelchairs.

But I can't help but wonder whether people who could benefit from using wheelchairs would feel better about it if more people used wheelchairs in public, if that makes any sense.