Spirituality of Being dDeaf

First of all, we pray to the planet earth, the only home housing our bodies, AND to the Holy Spirit inside all our souls. Then, we look at the Deaf (visi-centrality) dimension inside us, along with other dimensions - gender, racial and others. This might appear odd to you at first. This does not necessarily mean getting to the ground and prostrate, kvetching to some deaf entity/diety for advice and help. No, no. What we, the living dDeaf people, need to do is to beseech those dDeaf people from our sacred past for help in our constant struggle to better the world we live in.

Would we love to ask George Veditz for his opinion on cochlear implants and AVT? Would we love to ask Laurent Clerc to join the Deaf Bilingual Coalition and listen to his sagacious advices? Would we love to ask Edward Miner Gallaudet for advice about our communication method, a new “mask” for the same old combined method he fought valiantly for into his sacred grave? We would, very much so, sit down on the ground in a sacred circle and watch them with reverent awe. After absorbing new scientific information on sign languages, cultures, and communities (including cochlear implants), what wisdom would Alexander Graham Bell sign to us, deaf, Deaf and hearing people, in our sacred circle? Would he dig deeper his Victorian spurs? Or would his humane heart take over and proclaim something new?

Every being is spiritual, dDeaf people no less. Every dDeaf person feels differently on the role their deafness play in their lives. Some piously devoted to ASL while another person, few miles away, strongly feel that she would perish without her cochlear implants. Both feel strongly about something related to being dDeaf. We are now starting to ponder on “being dDeaf”, now termed Deafhood, with our rainbowed thick crystal-glasses we now putting on in front of our eyes.

Who should the dDeaf pray to? In every culture, they have older people to impart their wisdom on how to raise our children {our future} to critically continue our humynity. Our Nelson Mandela is now involved in establishing a new Council of Elders to give wisdom to us all. What about for us, the dDeaf? Where are our Council of Deaf Elders (including hearing persons)? We do have those people ourselves but they are not yet elevated to higher realms deep inside our lives. We need to sprout and share more stories about them, our Elders, our Deaf brothers and sisters, now departed. The more we think about that, the more we probably will feel spiritual. We need to start working on making changes in our lives for our dDeaf children, or the Deaf Child Within us.

Until very recently, we do not use those words in our current signing parlance. Elders. Wise Old Wo/Myn. Our Deaf Grandfathers and Grandmothers. We do behave in reverence and awe, without realizing, toward our current living deaf Elders. At our gatherings of all kinds, we give tributes to those older Deaf people who are about ready to depart. Should all that remain the same? Or should we show more appreciation and awe? Only with Father Time, Mother Gaia will tell us.

Should we not only continue revere them and ask them for advice but elevate the way we ask. We close our eyes and beseech. Would that be considered praying? If so, then we should pray to our Deaf Elders, in addition to the Ultimate Reality in us all.