![[image description: Two toddlers sitting down, back facing camera. The older kid has arm around the younger. Text says, "We can win with words of love." ]](https://www.munkymind.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/love.jpg)
Hate is a poison as much for ourselves as it is for those we would use it against like a weapon of words or actions. It is a poisonous and treacherous waste of our own effort. It lacks the capacity for positive change that a nonviolent approach has. Minds are not usually changed for the…
Author: J. Parrish Lewis
J. Parrish Lewis was born and raised in Maryland. In his youth there, he and his brother had many adventures in the dogwood forests near his home. His nostalgia for these adventures has strongly influenced his characters, their relationships, and their perspective on the world they inhabit. He moved to California’s coast to earn his degree in communications and now lives with his family in the San Joaquin Valley. Lewis is profoundly deaf and uses American Sign Language to communicate. He enjoys hazelnut coffee, captioned movies, and walking his dog.
Sadly, it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke that AG Bell (as we tend to call the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing) decided to diminish the achievements of Nyle DiMarco by essentially saying they needed to “dispel the myths about deafness.” In reading their article, I felt sick. I felt…
At some point in life, most of us develop personal values. We get this idea in our heads about the kind of person we’d like to be or the kind of life we’d like to lead. If we’re real go-getters, then we’ll achieve this kind of life. The truth is that we throw all kinds…
![[Image description: Children in a classroom, hunkered over books. Two boys read in front. Behind, at other desks are a girl and another boy. All appear to be persons of color.]](https://www.munkymind.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/soar-1024x768.jpg)
Author’s note: Despite the title, I am fully aware that we have many hearing educators that are allies of the Deaf Community that understand us and support us in ways that honor the message I am trying to share below. I apologize if the title is off-putting for those of you who already have joined…
![[image description: tiny wooden robot standing on some shiny surface in the middle of a grassy field]](https://www.munkymind.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/robotic.jpg)
I know you woke up this morning and thought, “What can I invent today that’s going to make the lives of deaf people simply amazing?” Well, have I got some ideas for you! (and psssst … I want 10% of the profits. Thanks.) HOLOGRAPHIC INTERPRETERS, YESSSSSSSSS! We deaf folks really just want to understand what…
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I laughed at my thinning hair
![[image description: photo of J. Parrish Lewis, cropped so that only top half of head is available. Light-skinned, dark hair that is thinning. Photo has been altered to be a monochromatic blue tint.]](https://www.munkymind.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/hair.jpg)
I’m serious. I looked in the mirror and I saw, for the thousandth time, the stealthy retreat of my hairline and the patch of thinning hair that spoke this message to me: You are getting older, J. For years, I noticed the gradual change in my hairline with a bit of dread. It didn’t matter…
I had a dream once, an actual dream, where I died and went to Heaven and they made me hearing again. I was angry in this dream and demanded my deafness back, because it was a part of who I am. Not the entirety of my Self, but a part that may be more integral…
Author’s note: On my Facebook page, I asked readers to give me various elements of a story that they wanted me to include in what I call a Story Stew. I’d take their ingredients and mix them together, adding in my own elements to create a short story. Below is a first draft, unedited at…
1991. At 16 years old, I finally got my Driver License. I say “finally” because I had spent most of my 15th year daily polishing my 1971 Volkswagen Beetle with Turtle Wax. Daily is not an exaggeration: that car SHONE like a white hot sun. I bought the Bug, which I named Herbia because it…