It’s been about 2 months since I left Gallaudet and Washington D.C. I look back at the experience with a great sense of gratitude. When friends and family ask how my summer was in past years, my usual reply would be, “It was great!” This year, however, I found myself saying, “It was fruitful.”<\/p>\n
It was fruitful\u00a0because it was an experience that challenged and changed me. Being immersed in the\u00a0language and\u00a0culture of a people who are often invisible, yet surround us, has allowed me to become more\u00a0sensitive to human difference\u00a0beyond racial and ethnic tropes that dominate narratives about “human diversity” today. The Deaf literally taught me how to see differently.<\/em> I saw how language and culture do not exist apart from how people are made\u2014biology and culture are two sides of the same coin. I saw how visual language\u00a0could say things that oral and written language\u00a0would never adequately express; it makes one think<\/em> differently. Best of all, I saw possibilities for a society that enables, rather than disables, that is, the possibility of radical hospitality.<\/p>\n There have been some things I’ve missed since my return. I miss not having to use my voice at 8 a.m. As\u00a0an introvert, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed communicating with my hands at that hour.\u00a0I also miss being able to communicate with a friend across the room without having to yell and attract unwanted attention\u2014this happens more often than one might think! Most of all, I miss worshipping in ASL, which I got to do for 6 weeks at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in MD. I am grateful to this\u00a0welcoming community for inspiring\u00a0me to write this\u00a0theological reflection on\u00a0recent debates about\u00a0ways of praying at Mass<\/a>\u00a0(part II can be found\u00a0here<\/a>).<\/p>\n My initial motivation for going to Gallaudet was to learn more about Deaf culture and improve my ASL so I may do\u00a0ethnographic research at Deaf Catholic Churches. I am pleased to say that I gained all that and more. But so that I retain what\u00a0I learned over the summer and gain more fluency in the language, I am now auditing an advanced ASL course at Bethel College and have been attending local Deaf events. I also\u00a0intend to start\u00a0an “ASL language table” at Notre Dame\u00a0to share what I’ve learned and promote\u00a0the language.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s been about 2 months since I left Gallaudet and Washington D.C. I look back at the experience with a great sense of gratitude. When friends and family ask how my summer was in past years, my usual reply would … Continue reading