There’s always a ramp

By Liz Carroll

Attention all card-carrying cliché-ists… I’ve got a new candidate for you. One that could fit in with those handy standbys that we spout when a new, apt phrase is hovering but not quite lip-ready. Like “if you’ve got a lemon make lemonade” or “this too will pass” or “don’t postpone joy” (okay that’s not really a cliché but it’s a great mantra in the “keep calm, carry on” category).

My suggested new entry? “there’s always a ramp.”

It came to me in a moment of pique and it erased an unspoken crankier comment.

You see I’ve recently started using a walker… (don’t ask!)… reluctantly at first, now with boundless enthusiasm. But… there’s always a ‘but’… having this appendage, complete with hand-painted daisies to fake an accessory look, has brought into glaring light all the steps and stairs I so blithely ignored in my untethered days. Staring down at the impediment between me and the terrace entrance of my destination I mentally bemoaned the frustrating barrier while sending out bad vibes to the nasty, thoughtless planners who don’t care about ‘poor me’ and my ilk.

And then I glimpsed a blue logo on a nearby post. An increasingly familiar sketch of a wheelchair. Aha! There it was. A wide, easy to manage ramp. As I meandered down (most ramps meander, it’s a space thing) to join the throngs, I realized that if we look carefully we’ll find it, the alternate route that takes us where we want/need to go. Some ‘ramps,’ mental or physical, might be a little harder to find but hey, who said life was perfect?

Next time you bump into a road block repeat after me “there’s always a ramp.” Together we just might create a new cliché.