We need each other’s questions. When we meet people and they share the questions they have carried within their experiences, we are invited to ask our own questions as well.
When an experience is new in our lives or a set of needs emerges in new ways, in all honesty, there are whole areas questions we don’t even know to ask until we’ve met people who have already asked them.
This is true in so contexts.
I find that this is true in my work in community at the Epilepsy Foundation of Michigan. People who are newly diagnosed don’t always know that certain treatments or types of specialists are available until they’ve met other people with epilepsy who have asked those questions before them. Parents don’t always know that their children have particular rights in education or that accommodations that can be initiated until they meet other parents who have had to ask those questions before them. People don’t know always how to get involved in advocacy until they’ve met other advocates and activists who have asked questions before them.
In this context, and in so many contexts,
we need each other’s questions.
–Renee Roederer
Smuggling Grace 