Wild Hearts Can't be Broken

Wild Hearts Can't be Broken for a reason. The world tells them no and they endure to yes. That's not just my disability talking or my trauma history. It's anyone who's been told no because of who they are and kept going because they weren't going to let their hearts be silenced because it was safer or more comfortable for others. 

In the Disney film Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, the main character is portrayed as willful to the nth degree. She has an accident that makes her go blind and immediately everyone starts to doubt her capability to do what she had done before. Her will and determination to do what they said no, you can't, was so strong that she did it anyway – against all recommendations. 

I remember watching this film as a kid and I really liked this film, but because it was Disney it wasn't always the easiest thing to watch because their movies had a tendency to disappear back in the day. The story captivated me. Sonora’s strength stood out to me. They packaged this in a relatively short film, which made it look like becoming disabled and then overcoming the odds was an incredibly easy experience to some degree, even in doing that, they still highlighted how much other people get weird about disability.

She had to fight for what she wanted which had understandable resistance to it because the thing that she loved doing was diving horses which would be dangerous on a good day for anyone. Now she's trying to do it blind. That's all the space I'm going to give for the naysayers is that I understand why they were scared and trying to keep her from doing things. 

The point in sharing this isn't to say that I think the film did a great job portraying disability or even what it's like to live with a disability, really it's too short to give it that kind of credit. What it did do however, was highlight the tenacity that it takes to not be put in a box by society because of what you can no longer do or what you never could do. It highlighted the willpower it takes not to be put in a box for who you are.

If you're disabled and society says you can't do this and be that way, when you overcome that it's because of a strength that is hard to articulate. If you are othered in any way because society says you can't be that and do this, perhaps your wild heart can't be broken either. There's a message in this film about the spirit of being put in a box and being told no. If you want something bad enough, you'll fight for it. I'm not going to sit here and glamorize that overcoming the odds and the barriers of society is fun or easy because it's not. I think a lot of people would just rather that otherness kind of shut up and go away. That's the thing though, each of us has something other about us that the world would prefer to silence. When we stand together, as a unified voice, for hope and change, that's a real shift. 

At the risk of being called woke, I see the way that we other people tell people no they can't be who they are in this world as it is. I see the way we've designed systems that blatantly exclude people. I see the way that it's difficult for people to notice that because it requires taking some level of responsibility for the problem. I'm a white male living in the privilege that comes with that sometimes. The rest of the time, I'm a disabled person living with the barriers that come with that. I'm a trauma survivor living with the stigmas that come with that. Where the main character in the movie, Sonora, and I can relate is that our wild heart cannot be broken, not by the conditions that we live with, nor by the society that says we can't be who we are. 

I have lost so much and I have endured so much, that even I have thought I don't think I can take anymore of this, and yet my fire burns because this heart is not broken. And there's a call to the wild deep inside that says just keep fighting, just keep going, and don't ever stop because someone with some stupid b******* idea thinks that you're not worth it. And stop believing that idea because it holds you back from all that you can be. 

Here's your takeaway today, everyone that lives in society is responsible for the ableist systems that keep people down and until you recognize your part in that, even if that's just ignorance, things will never change. Your other take away, the reason why a lot of people are inspired by the very normal things disabled people do is because we have fought to overcome the systems that you built without us, we have fought to overcome the barriers that have been placed in front of us on purpose to keep us out, like anyone who's been othered for who they are, we have showed up in spite of the no, and we have claimed space to be here.