To Tweet Or Not to Tweet: Where Motivation Comes In

It was a rare night out in Philadelphia—dinner and a show. I hear those words all the time, but rarely get to say them. Going into the city always seems to add a little excitement to whatever is happening, and I was really looking forward to seeing a play. As a writer I’ve been told my dialogue is a strong feature of my work, so it’s a format I’ve flirted with a few times, and I just think it’s fascinating to see actors performing live. I can’t imagine the nerves and skill that takes.

I didn’t share anything about the experience
at the restaurant, but I did share the Arden
Theatre’s photo of the play we saw
that night on Facebook. The photo is from
the climactic scene of “John.” As I said
in the post, it was fun to get out and do
something different, and I enjoyed seeing
a play live.

Dinner at a nice restaurant was first on the agenda. I’m not a foodie, but a really good meal works for me once in a while. I was surprised when we had to wait at such a nice, and let’s face it, expensive, place, but it was no big deal at first. As time went on, concern started to grow about making it to the theater on time. (Seriously, I don’t say such words often. I couldn’t resist.)

Eventually, the maître d' attempted to be apologetic. Standing near me, looking at everyone else in my dinner party, she explained that they were struggling to find a table I could get to in a wheelchair. She added that they were usually much better at “this.” For clarity, she took her hands and essentially made an imaginary frame around me. Since my mom and I were actually being treated to the evening out, I decided not to react to the rude behavior.

On another occasion, I believe it was later that year, I went to a bike shop that has taken very good care of me as a customer for several years. I was shopping for sunglasses that particular day. When I asked the guy working in the store about the differences between the brands of glasses, I was told that I didn’t want any of them because I didn’t want to pay such a high price. This was news to me. In fact, I was directed to a nearby CVS to buy a more suitable pair. Again, I chose not to try to address the condescending attitude of the person I was dealing with. It just didn’t seem worthwhile. Instead, I returned the next day with my mom, who is able-bodied. The same guy was working at the store, and he was suddenly quite literally in a rush to help me pick out a pair of glasses that they were selling.

I could have responded to these incidents by firing off some angry tweets, ranting about how poorly these establishments had treated me as a customer with a disability. The only reason I didn’t do that at the time was because I had decided to only post positive messages on social media for a year. It was an experiment of sorts.

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.
Well, let's hope those lyrics from an old song
turn out to be true. Either way, these
sunglasses were, in fact, the pair I wanted.

Now as I look back on those incidents, I’ve been thinking about the motivation behind wanting to post about them. Did I simply want to try to hurt the reputation of a business that treated me poorly? Or was I truly interested in trying to bring out the idea that people with disabilities deserve the same respect anyone else would expect?

As a writer with a disability, I wondered if I was shirking a responsibility by not mentioning these incidents. I could have named the establishments and called them out for the ignorance their employees put on display. Fighting the good fight, as the saying goes, is certainly a noble thing to do. But I have to admit that advancing the perception of people with disabilities was not on my mind. I was simply ticked off.

Understanding why I wanted to tweet about those incidents puts a new perspective on the whole idea of calling something out on social media, just like understanding my goal in writing a story is a great guide in my efforts as a writer.

But . . . so what? How does writing about it help anyone else? 

Search the term “motivation” on your favorite social media site and you’re guaranteed to find a lot of quotes, stories, and videos, meant to get you fired up. YouTube, for instance, is filled with plenty of well-produced videos with pounding music as muscle bound people lift weights or do extraordinary physical feats. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I used to put on my headphones, turn on my ipod, and pedal for an hour at the gym. The music almost carried me through the workout.

Lately, though, I’ve been thinking that there’s more to motivation. My last post generated a couple great responses from people explaining what motivates them. One focused on the desire to be an example for children. Another comment talked about practicing T’ai Chi Chih and playing pickleball to stay active. I’d love to hear more from readers about what motivates them here on the blog or on social media.

I’m also looking to tap into my brief experience writing for a newspaper. I’m hoping to do interviews with people who are chasing their better life. I think it will be a great way to learn more about motivation and to bring some other voices to this site.

I have no desire to be Pollyanna. Obviously, it would be wonderful if everyone thought about what they were putting out in the world before hitting the send button on a tweet. That’s not saying anything new, and when we have the worst examples of it coming from the highest places, well, my reminder doesn’t amount to much.

But when I think of it in terms of motivation for myself and others, it gets me energized. And my hope is that writing about it can help readers feel that same energy. Hopefully, we can explore motivation together.