Embracing Our Beautiful Diversity: A book review on Tatum Tricarico’s ‘Blessed Is the Body’

Heather kicks off a new series for our monthly community blog. In partnership with MennoMedia, Women's Voices will regularly feature book reviews for women's groups in addition to continued storytelling, faith-inspired reflections, and ministry spotlights.

As an Intervention Specialist teaching 11th grade English, I spend a lot of time teaching reading and writing skills. But not writing for myself or others. So, when I was asked to be part of a group of women writing book reviews, I was intrigued and more than a little nervous.

I chose to review Blessed Is the Body by Tatum Tricarico, a Disability (with a capital "D" in text) rights activist and theologian. This Lenten devotional focuses on Disability justice and the community of Christ. As a teacher of students with learning Disabilities, one might assume that I am familiar with the term “Disability justice,” and I am, but mostly limited to the school setting. Tricarico does an excellent job of interweaving Disability justice and history with scripture about Disabled individuals. The daily devotions include scripture, reflection, questions to consider, and suggested actions or hands-on ways to connect to daily life.

For me, Lent has always felt like a heavy time of confessing failures and focusing on our brokenness as humans. Tricarico’s understanding of Lent as “a time to pause and finally say what we’ve been trying to hide all year: I am human. I can’t do it all. I have failed. I need help.” was liberating (p. 14). Our brokenness is expected and just part of the package of being human. Yet, God still calls us beloved, because that is who God created us to be.

The Biblical stories of Disabled individuals range from Jacob (Disabled after wrestling with God), to the bleeding woman, to Moses’s speech Disability and others. From the author’s perspective, I began to see that at times God creates Disability, God chooses to remove it or not, and God provides accommodations for Disabled persons. Disability is not caused by sin; Disability is part of the human experience, part of the diversity that God created. I find this to be in contrast to much of historical religious teaching.

While reading, I was simultaneously challenged, encouraged, and humbled by the author’s honesty regarding the hurt caused by ableism (discrimination in favor of non-Disabled people) while acknowledging that we are all on a journey to love and accept ourselves in order to love and accept others as God created us. Tricarico discusses hard truths about past and not so past treatment of Disabled people while extending grace and patience to those of us who are unfamiliar with these stories. But in the end, we are not condemned; we are encouraged to embrace our finite bodies while “living in the already and not yet of God’s presence here” and the hope of resurrection (p. 78).

Heather Myers

PEACE Mennonite Fellowship

Archbold, Ohio

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Women's Voices blog is a community journal published monthly. Read the archives for past reflections by diverse women: https://www.mennonitewomenusa.org/blog and consider offering a piece about your own story, ministry, or book analysis: https://www.mennonitewomenusa.org/post/call-for-writers.