Living with Quiggles: Whose Responsibility

Stigma:
1) The recognition of differences based on some distinguishing characteristic or mark;
2) A consequent devaluation of the person

Quiggle: A made-up term (by famous sociologist, Erving Goffman) to identify all of the variations and differences of the human body which occur either from birth, daily wear and tear, accident or illness which can be, and will be stigmatized.

Over a lifetime we all construct a belief system, a compilation of our life's past experiences, education (or lack thereof), parental attitudes, religious upbringing, who we choose for a life partner, and the quality of our friendships, to name just a few influences. Our individual belief systems are as unique as each of us. Each day's new experiences are filtered through these beliefs. Individual belief systems lead some to accept strange objects in the night sky as an indication of visitors from across galaxies; others to attribute happenings in their lives as coincidence while many may see these "coincidences" as guidance coming from a source beyond their human ability to see or hear. Our belief systems also influence how we deal with stigma, for instance will we stigmatize others; or how much we might internalize stigma if it is directed at us personally.

Belief systems are multifaceted, and hopefully always open to change. Over my lifetime I've had many an occasion when I wished I could  throw open a door, peer into a parallel universe and shout, "OK, who's there and what is the message." Other times I simply looked up into the sky and mentally telegraphed "OK, I get it."

One example which I still remember happened many years ago: I was in a stressed-out countdown mode packing in the final hours before a flight to Germany where I would deliver a keynote speech when two young men rang my doorbell wanting to share with me their religious belief system. Normally I would have listened and learned something, but that day I politely turned them away. Less than 24 hours later, sitting alone in a beautiful public garden in a foreign land right next to the conference center two young men stopped at my bench and in German (which I used to speak passably) asked me the same questions I'd heard an ocean away just the previous day. My belief system does not incorporate this into my life as a coincidence, although I'm well aware some might.
 
Just last week, shortly after filing the column before this one with my editor, I had yet another experience which I cannot view as coincidence. Those of you who are faithful readers of "Living with Quiggles" will hopefully recall that last month's article spoke about the concept of covering. Covering is when a person with an apparent stigmatized health condition attempts to minimize the condition (or cover it) in order to feel more comfortable in society. One of the examples used in last month's article was a person with a known vision problem who wouldn't read when in the company of others because she needed to hold a book very close to her face to see the print.