Speech By Nancy Mairs

A Tomato Looks Bad but Tastes Great
Paul Klee once said, “A single day is enough to make us a little larger or, another time, a little smaller.” Nancy Mairs, a victim of multiple sclerosis, practically lives by this concept. She is someone who has been through a lot of trouble and persevered through it all. In Nancy Mairs’ speech, she views the word “crippled” as straightforward, and describes that others view it as an offensive and repulsive word, yet she constantly uses it to depict herself as a tough woman who has persevered through many obstacles.
Nancy Mairs views the word crippled as truthful and uses it in a manner that brings out her tough personality. She knows that other words such as “disabled” and “handicapped” are inaccurate,

Mairs believes that the word crippled is truthful even though it offends people. She says that other words are not relevant and calls them “pure verbal garbage.” She understands that society sees the words “differently abled” as a positive label, but contradicts their beliefs by calling herself a cripple in order to bring out her tough side. She does not tolerate the uselessness of the other words because they do not represent her situation better than “crippled.” Her reason for defining herself as a cripple is because she wants “[society] to wince.” She uses the astonishment of society towards “crippled” to her advantage in order to change their image of her into a tough woman. She constantly uses a word that is despised my many to make her seem as though she is someone who does not care about other’s opinions, but rather as someone who does what she believes is right. Her depiction makes her seem like a mentally strong woman. One of her most powerful phrases is when she denies that she has “lost anything in the course of this calamitous disease.” The audience’s thoughts towards her at first may have been sorrowful, but she does not want any of it. Instead, she wants people to see her for her strengths rather than her weaknesses. On the outside she may look like someone who has given up of