#HelloAgainTarot

[@RootsAndWaves]

Hi Allyson!! The Fat Folks Tarot deck arrived in my mailbox recently as well and I also love the artwork! I am looking forward to getting to know this deck and I am happy I was able to support the project. I enjoyed this VR! Much love to you. xo

[@MrsStephz23]

"I'm probably going to toss it" and then proceeds to toss the box off screen lol

[@AllysonBrightDeterminedtoShine]

Straight into the recycle bin.

[@talkingtomeowself]

I am so sad I missed out on the fat folks tarot. As a fat person, it is such a beautiful deck!

[@DeborahThomasRNCPht]

Try to remember FAT is a part of everyone. We need it for certain functions. Try not to see it as a size but a substance of life and vitality. See if this helps.

[@gingerblue]

As far as the term "Fat" I'm fairly sure that people have reclaimed that word to turn it from an insult into an empowering word, and Fat is the new term for overweight for people in that group, much like the term "African American" has now evolved into "Black". I know that disabled people sometimes toss the term "Cripple" at each other and use it to refer to ourselves in a "I'm taking that term and making it my own" (I have Spina Bifida, so I'm part of that population), but it's not yet near the point where we are okay with people from outside the group using it (much like the "n" word being used by people outside that population). I'm a little "nah" on the term "disabled" evolving into "differently abled" because I think "differently abled" is just TOO saccharine. It doesn't sit well with me because it doesn't feel like a term that our entire population (disabled people) have really agreed upon- it's more a term that people outside our population have created and use to try and ease their discomfort around the outdated terminology for disabilities that they invented, if that makes any sense. Hoping for something a little more straightforward and honest that our community/population can agree on, something *we* own and and create. I know you have MS, so I'm throwing this out here for the sake of honest communication after years of being told "just stay back in the corner and don't say anything and hope they don't notice you're not like them" and I hope this comment doesn't offend anyone. Disabled people *are* part of the minority (the largest minority group on the planet, in fact) and I am hoping that all minority groups can connect together and really recognize our similar struggles and work together to fight for better conditons for everyone, across the board - if we all came together to fight for the things that we all jointly agree on (more access, more awareness, pushing back against blatant discrimination) we literally have the numbers to change the world.

[@AllysonBrightDeterminedtoShine]

I love this comment and insight. And I agree about using the term disabled. I think people don't like using it because of their own fear of disability. Almost all of the disabled people I know, including myself, prefer that.

[@gingerblue]

@@AllysonBrightDeterminedtoShine So nice to read your reply, and have this exchange with you. I'm in my 40's, so I've been through a lot of changes of terminology for a lot of different groups. I'm fine with disabled- it took me a while, but I own it now, as I do my identity as a disabled person. So whenever someone calls me "differently abled", I want to say "thanks, but I'm good with disabled because I literally have a disability that prevents me from participating in life as actively as I'd want to." "Differently abled" feels as if someone is saying to me, "you can have all the experiences of life, you just have to find a different way to do them", which is not the experience most disabled people have. Not all of us are Paralympic extreme athletes, or even have the pain threshold for that life, and there are literally things we cannot do. It's okay to say "you know what? It sucks I can't do that, but that's what the bottom line is for me." Owning these things has been so empowering - instead of wearing myself out (my body AND my emotions) trying to make myself "keep up", I've become really excellent at being me, exactly as I am.