Horses are good company -- The Witcher

Here are some things I like about volunteering with LGBT books to prisoners!

I can do the things that play to my strengths, for instance: posting to the twitter account, screening letters, sorting books, training volunteers, filling request letters.

Other people can do the things that they are better at, and that I am not so good at, such as budgeting, insurance, repetitive tasks like wrapping and stamping.

Interdependence for the win!

It feels great to have some meaningful work that I can actually do. I've been screening letters lately and it's something I can do just a little bit at a time. It feels like we are making a difference and care taking for people who don't get much in life. I enjoy looking at the books. Right now we have a few too many in certain genres like contemporary fiction (esp. women's interest), so on Tuesday I sorted in the back room and made some boxes for the thrift store.

“Another myth that is firmly upheld is that disabled people are dependent and non-disabled people are independent. No one is actually independent. This is a myth perpetuated by disablism and driven by capitalism - we are all actually interdependent. Chances are, disabled or not, you don’t grow all of your food. Chances are, you didn’t build the car, bike, wheelchair, subway, shoes, or bus that transports you. Chances are you didn’t construct your home. Chances are you didn’t sew your clothing (or make the fabric and thread used to sew it). The difference between the needs that many disabled people have and the needs of people who are not labelled as disabled is that non-disabled people have had their dependencies normalized. The world has been built to accommodate certain needs and call the people who need those things independent, while other needs are considered exceptional. Each of us relies on others every day. We all rely on one another for support, resources, and to meet our needs. We are all interdependent. This interdependence is not weakness; rather, it is a part of our humanity.”
— AJ Withers Disability Politics and Theory p109 (via some_stars via dandyfied on Tumblr)