The Road We've Shared

It would be a gross disservice to not include the families who advocate online by sharing their truths as part of the All Together Now collaboration here on The Road. (Of course, you may think we are partial to the blogging cause, as that is what brought us together to begin with – Fair, but not the whole story.) A question that springs up in advocacy circles is: Why aren’t there more adult self-advocates or families of adults with Down syndrome out there blogging? Sharing their world? Telling their stories? Unfortunately, this lack of voice and presence often is misunderstood to be hiding.  You know, the old fleeing equals guilt theory.

Thank you Google for exhibit A – the point above.Blogging is a new thing. When my son was born and during his young years, I did write a bit about him and me and our story. These were the old days, when journaling was a private affair. If you wanted to go public, it meant writing articles, a slightly different beast, which were hashed out, submitted, fought for print space and so on.

I remember seeing one book on the shelf by a father who had a two year old son with Down syndrome, and with some combination of judging and jealousy I blurted out, “Two Years! How does he have a whole book on this from only two years? (And also, how did he have the time to write and publish it?)”

That’s right kids, books! To quote from The Princess Bride, “Books!  That’s what we called TV in those days.” Well, this was the early 90’s and not quite that extreme, but you get the idea.

Where was I? Oh, right, so why don’t more families of adult children or adults have blogs? As you can see,  one is, although we are (as a global community) at almost 20 years (semi-officially) of blogging, it’s not really of our generation.Another factor is, many families are kind of, well, over it. The ignited passion of the battles of changing the world have turned into the living of life. Of work, home, family, rinse, repeat.  There are, of course, other reasons that vary as widely as the unique stories they live.

But HO! This doesn’t mean none of our families with adults with Down syndrome blog and share their day to day truths. Although outnumbered, let’s say several to one, we are a small but diligent crowd with a mix of experienced and new advocates using the World Wide Web to tell our truths.

These truths are what make an impact. Truth is the critical center to the importance of blogging. There are those with kids in college, those with kids working down the street, those with siblings older and ornerier, those who want to be rock stars (maybe really are), those who have their own business, and those who are story makers, and more!

Do all of these folks agree on the big subjects that face our families, such as sheltered workshops and training of our first responders and how the future should look?

Can I get a Hell No!?!

Can all of these families be lumped together into one category as…umm…well any category, really? Nope, not really, no. The one thing they have in common, they all love someone with Down syndrome. Well, two things, they all love someone with Down syndrome and they are all sharing their truths in order to help the world better accept, and give a chance, to that someone.

So here is our Road Style Shout Out to those bloggers who help fight the Google War, share a window into their lives, and show their #Truth. Rock on, Bloggers!

Here is a Listly list for easy sharing and adding your own or another you know. Let’s keep talking.