Do you or someone you know have any art the expresses your unique experience as a person with T1D? I am welcoming art for consideration in the book's illustrations until July 31. Please see Collaborations are Awesome for more information.
Introduction: Why “Warriors”?
Introduction: Why “Warriors”?
Having type 1 diabetes (T1D) can be alienating and exhausting. I think that’s why the term “warrior” has been used in recent years to describe us. It's supposed to make us feel stronger.
I really resisted accepting and using that term as I wrote this book. “Warrior” is used by so many and the baggage of its meaning is getting heavier and heavier as the years go by. Take a moment to list things you think of when you hear the term. From a negative perspective, you may picture:
I really resisted accepting and using that term as I wrote this book. “Warrior” is used by so many and the baggage of its meaning is getting heavier and heavier as the years go by. Take a moment to list things you think of when you hear the term. From a negative perspective, you may picture:
- · Hostility and confrontation
- · Exhaustion and isolation
- · Grit and misery
- · Massive weaponry
- · Win or die
That’s not the whole story.
As a former master gardener and someone who worked in
botany once upon a time, I’m much more inclined to harmonious nature themes.
Think puffy clouds and cute chipmunks. Among my brainstorming notes for this
book’s outline, is a tree I drew as a representation of what a human is. We,
like trees, are composed of several parts (more on that later), and we interact
with our environments. For trees, that’s water, sun, air and the ground they
find themselves. For us, our “environments” are the things and opportunities we
have around us. As I sat with the idea, I realized that in both cases, if
there’s a bunch of individuals together (trees create forests and people create
communities), they also have positive and negative interactions with each
other.
Trees fight for space in a forest. People fight for
space in a community.
That last thought is what convinced me to use the term
“Diabetic Warriors”. “Fighting for” is a vague phrase, often related to
survival and winning, with the visuals I’ve listed. “Fighting for” can also
mean “struggling for”, and that adds more depth to our life picture.
We are all struggling for something. That’s what life
is. However, the struggle or fight does not have to be the completely
devastating guerilla warfare we sometimes believe (and experience). There are
benefits in living in the forest. There can be honor on that battlefield of
life.
With this book, I hope to bring back the emphasis of
honor when it comes to “Warriors”, especially, Diabetic Warriors. By honorable,
I mean: able to be respected and to behave with respect. I want us to have images
of:
- · Teamwork and trust
- · Collaboration and sharing
- · Intense effort and joy
- · Resourcefulness and creative thinking
- · Alliance-building and shared experiences
Please
take this opportunity to write down your own words on what you think describe
the honorable Warrior of today. To me, honorable Warriors…
With that, I welcome you as a fellow Warrior- part of
my tribe and forest! Although our
details differ, we are a band united by some common threads, including type 1
diabetes, thus we are not only Warriors, we are Diabetic Warriors. Diabetes
touches us or someone we hold dear.
Catch that last word? My book titles include the salutation
“Dear” for a reason. Corny as it sounds, we’re dear to someone. You’re probably
dear to many, but you are dear, at the very minimum, to one very important
person: yourself. A second goal of the book is to prove we are united and dear
in any number of other ways. Ways that can offer us strength and light.
Our dearness matters. Our relationship to others
matters. This Warrior idea is a universal one and I want to help build our
connections with other people- other Warriors. We’re together, including people
without the need for insulin. We all benefit by living that truth. To present
this argument, I’ve relied on other minds and life stories for support. There
are images I’ve included from a range of people with T1D and voices of those
with diabetes and those without. I believe all of it helps build the narrative
that our forest, our army, is bigger than we usually allow it, or believe it,
to be.
My last goal in Dear
Warriors is to challenge us to stretch. We are something today. We can be
something else tomorrow, if we try. I’ll ask questions to both you and myself.
I’ve set aside space for you to write down your reactions, your past, your hopes
and your plans. You’ll see my prompts in bold as I’ve done in this
introduction. I want Dear Warriors to
be a working space for growth and acceptance, so that the book you hold becomes
specific to you.
In summary, we’re all Warriors.
When I refer to “DW”s in this book, it stands
for 2 things:
Diabetic Warriors:
Honorable
people,
who
just happen to also have the added twist of type 1 diabetes.
Dear Warriors:
Honorable
people, T1D or otherwise,
who are held dear by
themselves and others.
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