I had a friend of mine once tell me that self-care is a key to work one does in one’s life, whether the worker’s work is the kind of work that brings home the bacon so the worker could fry it up in a pan (from the words of a 1970s commercial for the perfume Charlie), or it’s advocacies or activism based on work for nonprofits or for the community – or many other reasons we engage in work.
But self-care – the absence of doing work aimed at completing workplace goals, but instead is filled with doing something that brings one pleasure – encompasses a great many things. It can be exercise or gourmet cooking, watching television or skiing, knitting or surfing – it can be many things.
In my case, my self-care activities include home cooking, single-string kite flying, walking and fresh water fishing. Cooking takes care of a creative need I have, walking a need to experience neighborhood and just enough people at coffee houses to fill a need to engage with people (mostly baristas in this case) and single-string kite flying, as well as fresh-water fishing find me usually enjoying nature while having something to do so I don’t get bored just drinking in nature.
It’s the last thing that ended up giving me a project. I have a disabled fishing license due to my VA disability rating, and because of that license I’m eligible to fish on Lake Cuyamaca’s designated disability pier. It used to be marked with a three-foot blue disability symbol on the cement of the pier, and a sign that had a disability symbol and text underneath that read “Fishing Only” – indicating disabled fishing only. Well, the blue square didn’t wear off, but the white wheelchair wore off the pier over the years, and someone stole the sign.
So, non-disabled people have been using the handicapped pier, some unaware that state special needs funds were specifically set aside to build this pier. Sometimes fishermen (and it’s almost always men) impede the ability of disabled people using the pier as designed.
I took it as a small project to replace the missing sign on Lake Cuyamaca’s pier. So, I found one of many online sites to buy a sign, found sign brackets, and with the assistance of park rangers installed a new sign, and it was stolen within the first week of being posted. It appeared that a fisherman or woman wanted to use the pier without the fear of being fined for using a designated disability area.
The sign and bracket cost about $55 to install, and to see it stolen within the week was disheartening and frustrating.
But, I acquired a mindset in the Navy when it comes to getting things done after beginning a project: tenaciousness. I’ve bought several new disabled fishing only signs for installation in case a new sign is stolen. That said, it should be more difficult to steal because the sign(s) are to be installed with tamper resistant screws for the brackets.
I’ve bought a disability symbol stencil for painting on 3-foot blue squares – the size of the pre-existing disability symbol square on the disability pier. I’ve also bought re-usable two inch high stencils for painting “DISABLED FISHING ONLY” beneath the three foot blue disability symbol, as well as for painting on the entry edge of the pier.
Basically, the pier will be properly designated in the future in a manner that will make it difficult to remove all the markings without considerable effort – but with stencils, signs and paint to re-install the markings if all of the marks are stolen, covered or otherwise defaced, the markings will be able to be installed again and again until the person who would be defacing the pier’s disability markings loses interest.
And believe it or not, this “work” to mark the pier feels like it is self-care. It’s not caring for members of the LGBT community or myself, but taking care for people in the disability community to which I also belong. And, it directly supports an activity I engage in that is pure self-care for me.
And, it doesn’t hurt to feel like I’m winning through tenacity.
