Why do friends drift away in hard times?

Mark Webb, TEDx Talks - April 25, 2024

Personal disability stories with simple messages don't always work. The "How I became disabled" genre, and, as Mark Webb notes in his presentation, the "quote from the video" type of story, are especially likely to fall flat or send the wrong, unintended messages to both non-disabled and disabled audiences. But somehow this video works for me. He doesn't break much new ground. But he does a good job of making his own disability onset story interesting, and focuses needed attention on how friends and colleagues of newly disabled people should respond to them. I particularly like phrase "drifting away" to describe how people formerly close to us sometimes vanish from our lives when our disabilities become to difficult, scary, or perhaps just boring to deal with. The idea hits hard. But the video overall isn't depressing. At least I don't think it is.

Enjoy the weekend!

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