Weduesday, September 21, S988 © Narth Shore News

Sailor
is bad
news

THERAPIST
TELES KIDS,
JUST BE
YOURSELF

HANDICAPPED PEOPLE are under no obligation to be
less handicapped and the non-handicapped don't have to be
perfeet, is the advice family therapist Norman Kune gave in
a recent speech to students and teachers of Carson Graham
Secondary School.

“We have all these rules about
By EVELYN JACOB

who’s better than who. (But)
you're supposed to screw up,
that’s part of life,’ said Kune, a
family therapist and well-known
speaker from Toronto who was
born with cerebral palsy.

Kunc, the author of Ready,
Willing, and Disabled, is currently
touring Lower Mainland schools
offering personal advice about
what it’s like to be handicapped in
a non-handicapped world.

Growing up with a handicap
wasn’t easy for Kune. Amoug
other things, cerebral palsy dam-
aged his muscle control and
speech,

Cerebral palsy is an injury to a
child’s brain at birth. ft is not a
disease, Kunc said.

“Ts easy to remember. When a
pregnant mother breaks her arm
her baby isn’t born with a cast,
right?”’

At school dances, Kune’s
disability would cause him to fall,
and people would gather around
and ‘gawk and grab whatever part
of my body was closest.“

He spent hears perfecting his
dancing at home, but when a
friend asked him why he was try-
ing to be non-handicapped
everything changed.

“ft ohad never thought abaut

Contributing Writer

that,’ Kune said. ‘4 thought that
people would like me more if |
wasn't handicapped. Then 1 real-
ized that [ was under no obligation
to anyone to minimize my disabili-
ty. That really changed me."

Kune noticed that non-han-
dicapped people were also trying to
be perfect.

“We want to be the best at
sports, we want to get the best
marks, be good fooking,"’ Kune
said. “We've got this litth voice
inside ourselves that says that peo-
ple won't like us if we're not
perfect.”

“We live in a world where
everyone thinks they have to dance
a perfect dance," he said, adding
that sometimes we put other peo-
ple down — blacks, Jews,
homosexuals, handicapped — so
we can feel better about ourselves.

“Changing our thoughts about
ourselves and catching ourselves
when we dump oon othes people
will help us to feel at ease with
ourselves and become part of the
world, he said.

“Neves be intimidated by the
weakness of others. Never ler their
problems become yours.

ropical hanging

8”

Come early for

only

only

cast selection

THERAPIST NORMA
non-handicapped world.

NEWS photo Mike Wakelieid

Kune tatked fo Carson Graham students and faculty recently about survival in a

NEW LOCATION
CHINATOWN
LANSOGOWNE PARK
RICHMOND CENTRE
PAE AN MAL!

oe)

a