there is solidarity in suffering
There can be beauty and love in being disabled, there is solidarity and warmth in it. It doesn’t come in little a sterile pill box handed over by a pharmacy, it’s in the crumpled blister pack kept in the bag of a friend who knows you. It’s sharing painkillers carried specifically for your friends who may need it. It’s in the way we wordlessly pass tablets between us, a penniless trade, a pill for the knowledge you’re at ease. I’ve never felt as much love and honest care as I do from the disabled people in my life. The people who may not be struggling with the same thing, but understand to a level that cannot be explained by anything other than our shared experiences. The knowledge of pain, whether that be mental or physical, connects us in ways that can’t be compared to any connection with an able bodied person. Sick4sick friendships are some of the most beautiful I have. I know at least one of us will always have medication to share, I keep painkillers and nausea tablets in...