All this week I’ve been in Salt Lake City for a vendor training for work, and staying at the Little America Hotel downtown. Also at this hotel is an event called the Deaflympics.
Now I had never heard of the Deaflympics, but I have had a few reactions and ponderings as a result of coexisting in this huge hotel with this huge event and its participants:
- How cool and humbling to be surrounded by people who are defining themselves by what extraordinary things they can do while not pretending that what they can’t do (or can’t do well) is not real or doesn’t exist.
- This must be one of the dividends Salt Lake City can reap from its investment in the infrastructure required for the winter Olympics. I wonder how much that investment does pay back over time. I found this, which is an interesting angle, but it doesn’t really get at what I’m talking about. This one is closer, but it only goes so far as to acknowledge the use of infrastructure for future functions, not quantify it.
- It feels almost like being in another country, being surrounded by people “speaking” a language I don’t understand. Which is kind of a cool feeling to experience without actually leaving the country.
- Holy cheese, there’s a lot of hot athletes here! It’s major eye candy everywhere I look!
So yeah, call me shallow, but I tell ya, I ain’t lyin’. Hubba.
No mention of Mormons in this post
I’m not entirely sure that we need the sign language for pretty. I’m willing to bet that flashing your boobs and giving your email wouldbe as effective on deaf guys as it is on hearing ones. Not that I’ve tried this…I’m just guessing that guys figure “boobs = good” in any context.
“I had never heard of the Deaflympics”
Neither have they.
Ba-dum-dum.
How cool is that!
(Irrelevant side note: I spent the first night of my honeymoon in that hotel, in the bridal suite, thanks to my generous grandparents). 🙂
I’d be so bad in that situation…I’d totally be “eavesdropping” as fast as their fingers could fly.
For some reason, I thought you counted ASL as one of the many languages that you know…
Brenda
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http://www.firebrandesiderata.net
Hee, yeah, I bet that would’ve been tempting if I knew ASL. (Which, no, I don’t. I learned a few signs as a kid, and I can just barely remember the alphabet, but that’s about it. I don’t have any deaf/hoh friends or acquaintances, so I don’t have much opportunity to work on it, either.)