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The Power of Hope (with Abdi Warsame) · The Daily Writer

0:30
SPEAKER_00: Especially situations that seem absolutely hopeless.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: Our guest today shares a story of surviving a horrifying situation as a child, but then moving forward with hope in a positive spirit.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: And his story will really inspire you.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: Abdi Warsami is a survivor of Somalia's civil war.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: Despite being paralyzed from the waist down when he was 12 years old during a rocket attack in Mogadisku, Abdi overcame grave odds to survive his injuries in a place and a time where he should have died within days.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Over the years, Abdi left hurdle after hurdle to become the successful American immigrant that he is today.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: He immigrated to the U.S.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: and while overcoming the language barrier, he took advantage of every opportunity that came his way and ultimately graduated from North Carolina State with a BS in supply chain management.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: He has over 13 years of expertise in the telecommunications sector.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: And he is a passionate advocate for disability inclusion in the workplace.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: In our conversation today, Abdi shares his amazing story, which you can find in a lot more detail in his excellent book called Always Rolling Forward.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: We also talk about why no one should be defined by or feel limited by their disability.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: And you can check out the show notes after the episode at catstanders.net slash hope.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: Now before we get into the conversation with Abdi, let me mention a couple of things.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: First of all, I want to make sure that you know about our Born to Create Facebook group.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think it's really important to connect with like-minded people because you are not on the creative journey by yourself.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: So I really want to encourage you to check out our Facebook group, and you can find that by searching for Born to Create community on Facebook, or just simply go to Kentstandards.net slash Facebook group.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: And that's Kentstandards.net slash Facebook group.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: That'll redirect right to the Facebook group.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: And I just again I want to really encourage you to check that out because we ask questions there, we help each other, we uh are all giving each other ideas and encouragement and inspiration.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: So it's a small group, but it's growing, so I really encourage you to check it out.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: Now, before we get into the interview, I want to dive into our listener uh question for this episode.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: And this is a question that was sent in by Mr.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: Krell Buckaloo, and you can find his website at Krellbuckaloo.com.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: And the way you spell that is K-R-E-L-B-U-C-K-E-L-E-W dot com.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: And he is a painter and a pastor.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: Let me share with you the question that Krell sent in to me.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: He says Are there other Christians who lock themselves in a closet of guilt and believe that they should only use their art in a spiritual way?
3:13
SPEAKER_00: I began down this road many years ago producing art for a living for companies as well as painting inspirational pictures while presenting biblical messages.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Now I have completely stopped doing landscape painting.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: For five years now I've been a pastor in paint most often when I preach.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: The problem in my heart is that I do not feel as if I am pleasing to God if I use my talent to produce art simply for enjoyment or for decoration.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: So, Carell, first of all, thanks for the question.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you sort of uh putting yourself out there and just being really honest, which is really what this QA segment is all about.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: It's just asking honest questions, and I'll give you as honest answers as I possibly can.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: So thanks for the question and putting your heart out there.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: You know, having been a person who has been in ministry, vocational ministry, I used to be a worship pastor for about eight years.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I've worked in a Christian college setting training pastors for the past 15 years as my day job.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh having been in that setting for a very long time, I know that it's really easy for anybody who is in church work uh to feel guilty when they're not doing something that relates to quote-unquote ministry.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: So when you're in that setting, it's really easy to feel like everything that you're doing should be some sort of spiritual thing or related to church ministry or related to pastoring on some level.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: But I just want to remind you that art and creativity has a value for its own sake.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: And I think one of the best examples is in the book of Exodus, when God directed the artist to use all kinds of colors for the priest robes.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: Uh and then a little bit later, God called Bizalel and Aholiab as artists to work on the tabernacle.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: And these guys were using all kinds of materials to honor God.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, when it's talking about the priest robes a few chapters before that in Exodus, it says that they were to be for glory and for beauty.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: I think that phrase is very interesting.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: So in other words, the robes did not serve just a utilitarian purpose, they were for glory and for beauty.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: Or they were to look at and uh they had beauty uh for their own sake, not just for some sort of utilitarian purpose.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: The same is true for nature.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you go outside and I love to do biking and hiking and running and all that stuff outside.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you go outside and you see all the flowers and the trees and the sky and the sunset and rainbows, I mean colors don't always serve a practical purpose in nature.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they do, sometimes the colors actually serve a purpose.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: But uh you know, if you look at all the beauty in the natural world, you think wow, that has to on some level be for glory and for beauty.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes things don't have color in them other than for the reason of just being beautiful, I believe.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: God made them to look at it to be beautiful and to be glorious.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: Uh same thing is true when you look at the Psalms.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh David could have said what he wanted to say in more direct terms, but uh a big part of uh the Old Testament in particular is uh the fact that it's in different genres of literature.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: You have poetry, you have narrative, you have uh uh wisdom literature, you have all these different kinds of literature in the Bible.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: It would be so much easier if God just sort of said what he wanted to say directly, but instead uh particularly in the Psalms, he directed David and the other psalmists uh to use these poetic and beautiful ways of expressing his truth.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: So all that is to say that there is value in uh things being beautiful and things being creative and artistic uh for their own sake.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: And I think that your impulse, Carl, to paint landscapes and other types of uh uh quote unquote non-gospel art, I think that's a God-given impulse.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: And I think that you should pursue that because you enjoy it and because it's beautiful, and because it fills a creative need for you to express yourself.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: And not only do I feel like it's okay to do that, I think it's necessary.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: I've been in ministry and I'm around ministry people all the time.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: And if you're a pastor, you absolutely need to take time out to enjoy things that bring you joy and refreshment and energy in your life.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: Pastoring can be very stressful, it can be very uh depending on your emotional life and your energy.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: So you've got to do things that bring you refreshment and energy.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: For me, that's writing.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: I like to ride my bike and I and I like to do some other things that have nothing to do with teaching and ministry.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Those things bring me joy and energy.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to encourage you in your in your painting, find some things that you enjoy and that have nothing to do with church or with ministry.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: If you can find little slices of time and little pockets of time to do those things, I think you're really gonna find that they bring you an energy that's maybe been missing in your life for a while.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: So, Carl, thanks so much for the question.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully my answer wasn't too awfully long-winded.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: And I'll be sending you an ebook and an audiobook version of my previous book called The Artist Two Case.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: And for everybody else who's listening, if you have a question about the creative life, uh, habits, mindset, productivity, or writing, uh you can submit that question by going to KentStanders.net slash podcast and filling out the form on that page.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: Or if if you want to, you can just shoot me an email at Kent at KentSanders.net.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: And if I use your question on the show, which I probably will, because uh I don't have a ton of listeners at this point, but hey, you're listening to this and you're you matter and you're important, so I really appreciate you listening.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: So I probably will use it on the show.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: And when I do, I'll send you a free ebook and audiobook of the artist suitcase.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's get to our main interview, which is my conversation with Abdi Warsami.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: So here we go.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: Well, Abdi, I'm really happy to have you on the show.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for making time to do this interview.
8:45
SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much for having me on.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, I want to congratulate you on the release of your book called Always Rolling Forward.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: It's really an interesting book.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: It's very well written.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned a couple seconds ago before I hit record, you're a very gifted storyteller.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: So you know that that is not always the case when I read a book.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh so congratulations on putting together a really, really fine book.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: That's something to be proud of for sure.
9:12
SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you very much for saying that.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh so before we get into some specific questions related to the book, I'd like to set some context for our conversation.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: So for those who are listening who may not be familiar with the geography of Africa, can you share a little bit behind the history of Somalia, you know, of course, where you're from, where it is, and uh just the story of that country.
9:35
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I would love to.
9:36
SPEAKER_01: So Somalia sits on the very eastern edge of Africa.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: It borders with countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti.
9:48
SPEAKER_01: It sits on the Indian Ocean in the south and to the north, the Gulf of Aden, which runs into the Red Sea.
9:58
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, the country has the longest coastal lines of Africa, and it has a long history.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh, unfortunately, most people don't know much about the country, and most people know from what they saw films such as the Black Hawk Down and Phillips.
10:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you know, kind of give you a little bit of history.
10:24
SPEAKER_01: In 2010, an archaeologist named Dr.
10:28
SPEAKER_01: Sedamiri of the University College of London discover a prehistoric rock art, you know, created up to 5,000 years ago in in almost 100 sites in the in the northern side of the country.
10:44
SPEAKER_01: And so, for example, Somalis have traded with the ancient world, such as the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, um, who traveled to the land of Bunt, which is the east the northeastern part of the country, there's actually a state called the Bunt land in in that part of the country.
11:08
SPEAKER_01: Um, and Somalis do traded uh ancients who buy Frankincense and myriad.
11:15
SPEAKER_01: So there's a long history, but unfortunately the history we know of today is the civil war which has been going on for the last 28 to 30 years.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: That's really helpful to know because people like myself, an American, don't always know what's happening in every other single part of the world.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: So that's really helpful to know some of the history of Somalia and specifically your history there.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: Now, can you can you give us a brief synopsis of what happened to you as a boy that that led to your disability and kind of the backstory of all that that you tell in the early part of your book?
11:52
SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
11:53
SPEAKER_01: So in 1991, the Civil War came to the city of Mogadishu, which is the capital of the country, and my family lived in the city, although we lived in the outskirts of the city.
12:11
SPEAKER_01: So as the Civil War uh broke out in the city, our uh relatives who were you know in the central in the in the center of the city fled um out of the fighting, which was you know mostly taking place in the center of the of the city.
12:29
SPEAKER_01: And they they moved to our house, and two of my cousins, which were older than me, who also some of the relatives who moved into our house one day, it was a Saturday, January 12th, 1991, they wanted to go back to their apartments to pick up some of their belongings.
12:52
SPEAKER_01: And so they asked me if I wanted to join them.
12:57
SPEAKER_01: Um so we we had a lunch at our house, and after lunch, I I saw them sort of standing outside of the house, you know, talking, talking, and I came to them and I was very young, I was um I was 12 years old.
13:13
SPEAKER_01: So they asked me if I would be interested to go with them.
13:16
SPEAKER_01: I said, of course.
13:18
SPEAKER_01: I was a young young kid, always looking for adventure.
13:21
SPEAKER_01: I was interested, you know, to hang out with them.
13:24
SPEAKER_01: And so we walked to a bus stop near our house.
13:30
SPEAKER_01: There was a small you know market around in in that that area where the bus stop was.
13:37
SPEAKER_01: So we stood there understanding that the transportation system of the city wasn't working.
13:46
SPEAKER_01: You know, nothing was working.
13:48
SPEAKER_01: The city was a war zone, no one was going in, most people were coming out.
13:54
SPEAKER_01: Um so we sat we sat there, kind of waited for some somehow to find a car who would be going into the city.
14:05
SPEAKER_01: And as as we thought that wasn't gonna happen, and as we actually started walking into a coffee shop, you know, all of a sudden there was a a Toyota pickup truck that came from nowhere and it stopped right uh front of us.
14:20
SPEAKER_01: So the cabins run to the uh to the pickup truck, and I went just well with them.
14:26
SPEAKER_01: They jumped at the back and I basically did the same thing.
14:31
SPEAKER_01: The the car hit the gas and off we went to the city.
14:34
SPEAKER_01: Without you know, even questioning sort of the the logic of going into the war zone.
14:41
SPEAKER_01: Uh we just went.
14:43
SPEAKER_01: And the car, the driver of of the pick up truck, he knew the the street of the city, so he didn't go into the main main main streets which were closed, so he couldn't even, if he wanted to, he couldn't drive on those.
14:56
SPEAKER_01: So he went through the the neighborhood, you know, roads.
15:01
SPEAKER_01: Um and as we get near the city center, you know, the explosions, the uh the the shelling of neighborhood became frightening, really.
15:14
SPEAKER_01: Um and it was dangerous.
15:18
SPEAKER_01: So as we get near to the uh city center, my the backup truck stopped, my Cajons got off the car, I went with them, and we went to the first you know, the first cadence, the older cadence uh apartment, um and there was a gruesome, you know, areas.
15:39
SPEAKER_01: Um I remember seeing for the first time dead bodies, dead uh soldiers scattered all over all over the streets.
15:49
SPEAKER_01: It was terrifying.
15:50
SPEAKER_01: It was terrifying.
15:52
SPEAKER_01: It was you never have imagined a dead body.
15:55
SPEAKER_01: The smell of it was was even more horrifying.
15:59
SPEAKER_01: Um so we went through, we across, you know, that street, went to the older cousin's apartment.
16:06
SPEAKER_01: He went inside.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: I waited, I and the other cousin waited outside, and as he went inside, immediately after that, there was a shelling that started taking place.
16:18
SPEAKER_01: And the the apartment, the houses, the structure of these apartments were sort of somehow kind of fragile.
16:27
SPEAKER_01: The whole area, the whole place became to kind of wobble one side to the other.
16:32
SPEAKER_01: The cousin was inside he jammed, he jumped outside and we we really we fled, we ran away.
16:41
SPEAKER_01: Um it was too dangerous.
16:43
SPEAKER_01: So he couldn't grab anything, he not even you know, pair of a pair of shoes.
16:48
SPEAKER_01: So we went to the younger cousin's apartment and he went inside.
16:52
SPEAKER_01: We were we waited outside.
16:55
SPEAKER_01: He spent for a few minutes, grabbed not something visible, but he came outside and we walked, the three of us, and as we walked, headed back to our house, which was you know, as I said, on the on the outskirts of the city, we stopped at my uncle's house, and my uncle was guarding his house days earlier.
17:21
SPEAKER_01: He he moved his family outside of the city.
17:25
SPEAKER_01: He was guarding his house against any potential um looters or or thieves.
17:32
SPEAKER_01: So he he asked us to stay with him.
17:34
SPEAKER_01: It was around 5 30 in the in the afternoon, and typically the sun goes down around 6 o'clock, and if the sun goes down, the city is dark, there was no light, and typically at that on those days, as the sun goes down, the war inside to stop the fighting, and everybody stays where they are.
17:58
SPEAKER_01: So my cousin said, No, we're not gonna stay here because his house was close to the front line, so it wasn't a safe place to be.
18:09
SPEAKER_01: So they said, We're gonna take our chances and we will walk as much as we can, you know, to stay to stay away from the front line and go further as much as we can.
18:23
SPEAKER_01: Um, so so that was the uh decision they made.
18:27
SPEAKER_01: We drank water and we left.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: And as we left from his house, not even a mile from his house, there was a street that people were crossing, that we had to cross to continue the walk.
18:42
SPEAKER_01: And we got to we got to a street and there were people who were hiding from a building, and they said, you know, you you don't have to just wait, don't cross, because there's a sniper on on this street, so you just be be careful.
19:00
SPEAKER_01: So people were crossing one by one, but they were also waiting, and as as sort of the you know, the sniper you know, kind of take a break or maybe recharge.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, people were kind of at those moments where the people where they were kind of uh you know crossing that street.
19:21
SPEAKER_01: So we waited, and um a few minutes after that, once he paused, we just fled.
19:28
SPEAKER_01: The older cabin went, the younger cousin went, and I went with them, and we went through some buildings there, and it was terrifying.
19:37
SPEAKER_01: It was terrifying.
19:37
SPEAKER_01: That was the first time that I realized that my life is is at its stake.
19:44
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I thought I might not be able to make it uh uh through these buildings.
19:50
SPEAKER_01: The the bullets were really uh kind of flying uh through my ears.
19:54
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, next to my ears, it was terrifying.
19:58
SPEAKER_01: Um so we went through that and then we we got an open open field next to a cemetery, you know, ironically.
20:08
SPEAKER_01: And the buildings we went through were known to be called, they had a name.
20:13
SPEAKER_01: It used to be it used to be that the land these buildings were on were part of the cemeteries that you know years ago the government reclaimed that, so somehow they sort of built those part of the cemetery to build these buildings.
20:30
SPEAKER_01: So they used to be called life and death buildings uh people didn't like really particularly uh going through these.
20:38
SPEAKER_01: So coincidentally, that's where we were in this um in this time of uh great danger.
20:46
SPEAKER_01: So as we got to the open field, um we we caught up two other guys, we were we were running as fast as we could, and all of a sudden there was one one uh artillery rocket that that were fired and landed near the spot we were running on.
21:07
SPEAKER_01: And I was blown up.
21:09
SPEAKER_01: Uh immediately, as soon as I landed, I was conscious the whole time.
21:13
SPEAKER_01: The first you know reaction was get up and run.
21:18
SPEAKER_01: Uh I was I was worried there might be another you know rocket coming, so I I didn't want to wait, but immediately I realized my legs were moving, and that was when I touched both of my thighs, and they they felt very soft and very, very strange.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: And then I turned around, so I I'm sitting, so I faced my head you know, turn around.
21:49
SPEAKER_01: I I looked and I saw the younger Kazan laid face down to the ground, and he had a wide open cot on his Yep, and he was emotionless.
22:02
SPEAKER_01: So I thought he was unconscious.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: And then I looked the other way and I saw the older ca older Cajun running in the in the distance.
22:10
SPEAKER_01: So I called him.
22:11
SPEAKER_01: He stopped and he said, Are you alive?
22:13
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yes, please come and get me.
22:15
SPEAKER_01: He he came back, he went first to his his brother, younger brother.
22:22
SPEAKER_01: He flipped his face and he said, His name was Adun.
22:27
SPEAKER_01: He said, Abdun is dead.
22:28
SPEAKER_01: He said, Abdi Adun is dead.
22:30
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't believe what he was saying.
22:34
SPEAKER_01: Then he came to me.
22:36
SPEAKER_01: So I I had injuries on my back, on my shoulder.
22:42
SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, the bleeding was was going on and and I began to feel the pain.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: So he grabbed my right arm, no, no, my left arm, and I and I also used my right arm to kind of pull myself by sort of grabbing the dirt.
23:01
SPEAKER_01: So I so that's what I did, and he pulled he pulled me away from the scene, and he kind of laid me against a tree.
23:10
SPEAKER_01: Uh and we sat, he sat, uh, he sat uh next to me and we kind of waited there and kind of feeling a little bit hopeless.
23:17
SPEAKER_01: Hopeless because the sun was going down, and then and we knew if the sun goes down, it gets dark, and if it gets dark, nobody moves, and we could be we could be spending the whole night there.
23:30
SPEAKER_01: Um but luckily that wasn't the case.
23:35
SPEAKER_01: So we sat there for I said probably 10 10 minutes or so, and there was a car that came through that open field that we were hit with a small car.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: Uh with a uh I don't know what the mid and model was, but it was a sedan.
23:57
SPEAKER_01: So it came through that, and my cousin stood up and yelled and said, Please stop.
24:03
SPEAKER_01: So they they stopped, and it turned out one of my uh neighbors was actually inside of that car.
24:10
SPEAKER_01: So he came out and said, What happened to you, Abdi?
24:13
SPEAKER_01: And I said, please take me, uh, take me home.
24:17
SPEAKER_01: Um, they took us, me and my cousin, and they dropped us at a makeshift emergency, which used to be um would used to be a pharmacy, but it was converted as an emergency.
24:31
SPEAKER_01: So they dropped us there, we got treated, they put me on a table, there was no anesthesia, so they were putting uh scissors in your body without having that anesthesia.
24:47
SPEAKER_01: So it was it was painful.
24:49
SPEAKER_01: So they tried to find if there were shrapnels inside my body, and they couldn't find it, so it was too pain painful for me.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: I said, please stop.
24:58
SPEAKER_01: And they took me out outside, and um that was how it began, and that was sort of a summary of my injury.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: Of course, more details of this of this scene is in the book.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: Well, that is a really harrowing experience, and again, you you share, of course, a lot more about that in the book, which I encourage everybody to get and read.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: I want to fast forward to uh your time in the US and ask you about a couple of things there that you had that we had kind of mentioned in our email exchange because I'm I'm curious about your experience as someone with a obviously a major injury.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: Now this is gonna be probably a really dumb question, and I'm completely showing my ignorance here, but that's okay.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: I don't mind showing my ignorance if it helps somebody.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: When you're talking about people who are who are in a wheelchair or have other type of major injury, is it more accurate to say to refer to that person as a disabled person or to say a person who is affected by disability?
26:00
SPEAKER_00: What is the what is the proper terminology?
26:03
SPEAKER_01: Oh, this is such an important question.
26:06
SPEAKER_01: This is really one of the questions that I wish people ask more often.
26:12
SPEAKER_01: Because the person the proper way is to say a person with disability.
26:19
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
26:20
SPEAKER_01: As opposed to a disabled person.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: A disabled person has a connotation and feeling that the person isn't able to do anything.
26:30
SPEAKER_01: Right?
26:31
SPEAKER_01: Um, we say a disabled car, you know, a disabled this or that.
26:35
SPEAKER_01: So don't say a disabled person, you say someone with disabilities.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
26:40
SPEAKER_01: Um so I'm glad you asked.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: Well, I actually have a friend who is very active in uh the community.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: He actually has a ministry, it's called the ability ministry.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: And if these if you see their logo, it has disability, but it has the DIS sort of marked out.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's brilliant.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: And and he mentioned to me a little while back when we were talking that the proper the proper phrasing is a person with a disability or affected by disability.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: And I thought that was so insightful because those who are not affected by disability just don't even really think of it.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: So I love that idea of basically you're not saying someone's identity is is having some type of physical disability because that of course doesn't determine a person's identity or value in any sense.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, we so often attach these labels to to different types of people, which doesn't really help the conversation or help us to be you know unified or work together or anything positive, really.
27:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so we have to do a lot more educational awareness.
27:46
SPEAKER_01: Um so that is right on, it's spot on.
27:49
SPEAKER_01: The other thing that I we often use without even understanding or being being mindful of is the word handicap, which which which is something not to be used.
28:02
SPEAKER_01: So we often say, you know, the handicapped parking, you know, things like that.
28:07
SPEAKER_01: Or sometimes you you refer a person as being handicapped, you just say it's a negative word we shouldn't be using.
28:14
SPEAKER_01: For example, uh when we talk about a parking space, we should always say the accessible parking space.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that makes sense.
28:21
SPEAKER_01: That is more appropriate than to say the handicapped parking space.
28:25
SPEAKER_01: So I'm glad you asked me, yeah, this is really this is really important for you know for us to know.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's no such thing as a quote unquote ideal or perfect person.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: We all have limitations of some kind, and I think it's important to realize we're all just people and there's no categories.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: It's just we're all people and we all need to to have more empathy and respect for people who are different than us.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: That's just kind of a fundamental a fundamental human thing that we all gotta get.
28:54
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I think if I may take this one one more step, is in our country, in in the United States, we have about 20% of our population to be people with disabilities in some form or another.
29:11
SPEAKER_01: And that's a huge chunk of the country that when you look and when you talk about in references, you know, such as employment, we lag way behind.
29:24
SPEAKER_01: We will we really do lack way behind uh in some countries, and not all countries, but in some countries, the emphasis I think the emphasis should be not the disability that the person has, but the what they are capable of doing what what are what can they bring on the table?
29:48
SPEAKER_01: We got you know we got a wide variety of people.
29:54
SPEAKER_01: People who have been educated, right?
29:57
SPEAKER_01: Um so it there's still a stigma around it, although we're getting much better, but we got a long way, long way to go.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: As we start to wind this down, um can you uh maybe mention, and I know there there's a lot of habits that you have in your life, a lot of things that have contributed to your success, but if you had to pick one thing, what would that one thing be?
30:21
SPEAKER_01: I would say it is the power of positive thinking.
30:25
SPEAKER_01: And the reason I mention this is in life there's nothing straight, there's nothing mapped, really.
30:33
SPEAKER_01: You have to find your way around.
30:36
SPEAKER_01: You have to think alternatively.
30:40
SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes you would you would get a lot of no's, but you have to think ways to get yes.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that is such great life advice.
30:50
SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate you sharing that.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: That's good stuff.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: Well, Abdi, I really appreciate you taking time to uh be on the show today.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: How can our listeners connect with you and your book?
31:00
SPEAKER_01: Alright, so so the first thing I would encourage them to do is um check out my blog.
31:06
SPEAKER_01: It is Abdi, that's A-B-D-I Warsame, W-A-R-S-A-M-E.blog.
31:14
SPEAKER_01: So abdiwarsame.blog.
31:16
SPEAKER_01: That's my blog.
31:18
SPEAKER_01: So check it out.
31:20
SPEAKER_01: Sign up for my newsletter.
31:22
SPEAKER_01: And of course, if you are interested for the book to buy this book, it is currently on Amazon.
31:28
SPEAKER_01: You can go and and check it.
31:30
SPEAKER_01: There is uh the title, as you mentioned, is always Rolling Forward, The Power of Hope Against Insurmountable Arts.
31:39
SPEAKER_01: So thank you, Kent, for having me on today, and I really do appreciate it.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, totally my pleasure.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Abdi.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: That was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to connect with him.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: He is an awesome guy.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: As I do on every podcast, um, I want to share three takeaways from my conversation with our guest, uh, specifically in this episode with Abdi.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: Here are three takeaways that you can start putting into practice in your life and creative work.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: So here we go.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: Number one is the value of learning about other cultures and people.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, today we live in a multicultural world, and of course it's always been multicultural.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: But today the world is more connected than ever, and there is a great need for us to develop not just an awareness of that, but my goodness, an appreciation of that.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: We need to be open to learning from people who are different than us in every way.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: And whenever you learn from them and are open to developing relationships with people who are not just like you, their stories can really impact you and make a difference in your life.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: More on that in just a minute.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: Number two, we need to stop using the terms disabled person and handicapped person uh and instead use terms like a person with a disability.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: Now this may not seem like a big deal to most people, but actually it is because a person is not defined by their disability.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: As Abdi pointed out in our conversation, you know, you can have a disabled car or a disabled computer or a disabled object, but people are not by definition disabled.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: People instead have a disability.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: It may seem like a fine distinction, but I think actually it's a very big distinction.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: And something that I confess that was not on my radar screen for quite a long time until just recently.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: So I want to thank Abdi for that insight.
33:29
SPEAKER_00: And then number three, everybody has a story.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: Abdi's story is really dramatic.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, he was uh he got injured in a rocket attack in Somalia.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a really dramatic story.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: And if you read his book, it is so well told and so gripping and engaging.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: I really want to encourage you to do that.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: When you think about your life, maybe you think, oh, my story isn't that dramatic.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: Or you look at the people around you and think, oh these people don't really have stories that are that important or that engaging.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: But when we think that, we would be absolutely wrong.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: Because everybody around us has a story and everybody is worth getting to know.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: If we will only take the time to get to know people around us, we can really be impacted and learn some things from their story.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: And one of the hallmarks of just living a creative life in general is the fact that we need new input if we're going to continue to produce good creative work.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: And one of the best sources of great input is just getting to know people.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to necessarily travel across the world or travel across the country or go on some crazy adventure.
34:31
SPEAKER_00: Many times we have adventure waiting for us in the eyes of the person who is sitting across the table, or our coworkers, or fellow church members, or our own family members.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes we don't we just kind of assume we know people instead of really digging into their stories.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: So those are three things that I took away from this episode.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully one or two of those uh strike you as well.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: Well, my friends, that wraps up this episode of the podcast.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: I want to thank Abdi for taking the time out of his busy schedule to share this amazing conversation.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: And also I want to say a huge thank you to you for listening.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: You are the reason that this show exists, and I really appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to listen to the show.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: It really means a lot because there's lots and lots of other things that you could be doing with your time.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: But you're listening to this, which is pretty cool.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: Also, I would love to hear your thoughts on the show.
35:21
SPEAKER_00: What do you like?
35:22
SPEAKER_00: What do you not like?
35:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh what do you find helpful, what's not helpful?
35:26
SPEAKER_00: Let me know.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: Just shoot me a message on Twitter at Kent Standards or shoot me an email at KentStanders.net.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: And if you have any suggestions for guests on the show, I would love to hear those as well.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: Also, I want to encourage you to subscribe to the show.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: That is definitely the best way to make sure that you don't miss future episodes.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcasting app.
35:50
SPEAKER_00: If you're so inclined, and if you're if you like the show and are feeling good, please leave a rating and a review on iTunes.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: You can go to Kentstandards.net slash Apple, and it'll take you right to the podcast on iTunes.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: You can find lots more resources to help you unlock your creative genius at Kentstandards.net.
36:07
SPEAKER_00: Until next time, my friends.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: Remember that you were born to create a design to make a difference.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: Now go create something awesome.