News Articles
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Organizations for Special Ability Artists & Writers
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Technology & Tools
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Women Writers
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Women Writers
A Celebration of Women Writers
A Celebration of 20th Century Women Writers
Writers and Artists
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Writers and Artists with dis Abilities
Brett Reynolds, Artist & Writer, Australia
Christy Brown, Writer, Ireland
Donis Georgiou, Filmmaker, California, Cypress
Gianna Jenson, Activist, Singer, United States
Jessica Vohs, Painter, Danvers, Massachusetts
Melinda Smith, Writer & Artist, Australia Victor Pineda, FilmmakerEric “Rick” McQuaide, Painter
Troy Parker, Artist Tyler, Texas
Organizations for and about disabilties/abilities
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Contact
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If you would like to reach Prudy’s relatives please email us at anora egan at yahoo.
Prudy Sutherland
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Prudy Sutherland lived in the second half of the 20th century on the eastern coast of the United States in upstate New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Florida.
Prudy was the youngest daughter of Arthur and Suzanne Sutherland, born at the end of WWII. She was raised mostly in Massachusetts. Prudy was an intellectual who identified with the underdog. She had a keen sense of humor, which was wonderful, though challenging because she lived with a condition known as cerebral palsy which in her case made it difficult for her to speak clearly. Often she would have to say her funny statements three or more times before we’d understand what she was laughing about.
Prudy was a writer, and an artist - to the extent that one can do art with an IBM electric typewriter - which she did. Primarily Prudy was a poet, though she also wrote short stories.
The internet was not so active or popular during her time or else she would probably have had her own blog. She did not get a website before she died. In honor of her life, as her neice, the daughter of one of her brothers, I am establishing this website to make her work public and accessible.
It is particularly inspiring to read the creativity, depth and humor that this woman offered the world, living her whole life as she did, sitting in a wheel chair, having all of her needs provided for by her caregivers. Prudy could talk, and push with her feet, and type with a custom designed hat (helmut) that initially held a pencil with the eraser pointed out - so she could hit the keys on her typewriter.
Perhaps other wish physical handicaps will find inspiration from her work. But Prudy would hope that her work would stand on its own, her own physical condition notwithstanding.
Prudy Sutherland
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Prudy Sutherland lived in the second half of the 20th century on the eastern coast of the United States in upstate New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Florida. Prudy was the youngest daughter of Arthur and Suzanne Sutherland, born at the end of WWII. She was raised mostly in Massachusetts.
Prudy was an intellectual who identified with the underdog. She had a keen sense of humor, which was wonderful, though challenging because she lived with a condition known as cerebral palsy which in her case made it difficult for her to speak clearly. Often she would have to say her funny statements three or more times before we’d understand what she was laughing about.
Prudy was an activist for the rights of those living with handicaps. She published a number of articles on the topic, including one in the New York City based Village Voice.
Prudy was a writer, and an artist - to the extent that one can do art with an IBM electric typewriter - which she did. Primarily Prudy was a poet, though she also wrote short stories. The internet was not so active or popular during her time or else she would probably have had her own blog. She did not get a website before she died. In honor of her life, as her neice, the daughter of one of her brothers, I am establishing this website to make her work public and accessible. Prudy’s only sister will also help with preparing her bio and with additional material.
It is particularly inspiring to read the creativity, depth and humor that this woman offered the world, living her whole life as she did, sitting in a wheel chair, having all of her needs provided for by her caregivers. Prudy could talk, and push with her feet, and type with a custom designed hat (helmut) that initially held a pencil with the eraser pointed out - so she could hit the keys on her typewriter.
We all can find inspiration from her work, and Prudy hoped that would be the case.
Her work will be made available over the months to come, some on this site, and more hopefully through book collections of her poetry and essays.
Copyright 2008 for all content on www.prudysutherland.com. All rights reserved.
Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full?
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This rhetorical question is familiar to all of us. Its message is that we do best when we conduct our daily lives with a philosophy of contentment. Be happy over the good fortune and enjoyments that come your way, while at the same time overlooking as much as possible the curve balls that life throws you.
The philosophy of contentment is not a blindly Pollyannic view that everything is rosy. Rather, it is a measurement of the pleasant against the not-so-pleasant, with the perception that the pleasant outweighs the distasteful and the decision to celebrate that finding.
There is indeed much merit in the view that the glass is half full, in the ability to rejoice over life’s gifts rather than to forever bewail the defects and aggravations inherent in living.
Your loving wife leaves the cap off the toothpaste. You think about how gentle she is when you come home after a hard day. You never tell her you find the bathroom sink messy and unhygienic.
Your city has an excellent after-school care program. The city also prohibits nude dancers in any club except those which do not serve alcohol; you cannot see why lack of liquor renders watching naked women dance any less immoral. You keep quiet.
You consider the United States to be a rich, free and beautiful country which has afforded you the opportunity to carve out a decent life for yourself. You don’t quite agree with all of our nation’s foreign policies. But the leaders of such a great country must know what they are doing, and you support them.
When push comes to shove, the view that the glass is half full is a view that upholds the status quo. This troubles me. The attempt to change conditions comes at a high price. The attempt requires hard work, at the risk of social ostracism and perhaps physical danger. If you tell your wife that the messy sink drives you crazy, she may retaliate with a withdrawal of emotional nourishment. If you work to get nude dancing outlawed, you may become known as the neighborhood prude. If you protest a popular war, you may well get killed.
The view that the glass is half full can easily lull us into the belief that everything is really all right, that such hassles are unnecessary and even a sign of ingratitude.
To me society is like a small child whom I love dearly. With the proper attention and care, a child constantly changes, developing into a more and more competent person. Without the right care, the child is irrevocable damaged.
The child does not always like the good care. A trip to the pediatrician for inoculations brings kicks and screams. The denial of candy ushers in a pouting sulk. Yet it would be a perverse parental love which dictated “Tommy doesn’t like injections; I’ll keep him at home for an afternoon of lollipops.”
Like the child, society, as often as not, balks at reform. Indeed, it seems to have a perpetual case of the terrible twos. The history of society’s stubborn resistance to constructive change can be traced through the need, by those whose goal is the improvement of society, to resort to protest marches, non-violent demonstrations, and even armed struggle.
To work for social reform requires steadfast faith in the goodness of human beings and the belief that, if shown the way, they will ultimately choose good over evil, justice over injustice, decency over cruelty. Guided by this spirit of optimistic love, the work can be done with a sense of joy and fellowship, despite the arduousness of the task.
Is the glass half empty or half full? I suggest that if we view the glass as half full, we just may perish from thirst, whereas the view that the glass is half empty may urge us to work to fill the glass to the brim, ensuring us a long and progressive life.
Prudy Sutherland
Christmas 1991