What IF?

I've been hearing the word "bound" a lot recently -- college-bound, homeward bound, bound for Ohio, bound for Detroit, etc. "Bound" in this sense is used to suggest "prepared or purposing to go, starting, directing one's course, destined" (OED: subscription only). My nasty little mind immediately begins to wonder about that dreaded "wheelchair bound." What if "wheelchair bound" meant not "trapped in" or even "strapped to" your wheelchair, but "prepared for," "destined," "voluntarily directing one's course for?"


To a certain extent, I suppose, the TAB to disabled thing means that, should people live long enough, they will all "end up" bound to their chairs; it is a destiny of sorts. One to which we voluntarily head? Well, that I dunno. But what if this were the general understanding of how these things work?

I can begin to imagine a world in which wheelchair use is not a problem; it is an accessible world, a place in which disability is simply diversity. I cannot imagine a world in which wheelchair bound is said with the pride and sense of accomplishment as college bound. A place in which the frailty of the body is as accepted/desired/normalized as the destination of a flight. Of course, we all end up in wheelchairs. That's just what happens.