Hi,
So I’m pushing all of my chips in the middle — I’m taking 3E Love as full-time as I can take it and still pay the bills. I really don’t have any passion or ambition to do much else right now. Everything 9 to 5 feels pointless and minute in my big world. But everyday, the only thing that feels right to pursue is this symbol permanently inked over my heart. Sometimes you have to follow that calling.
I haven’t sat down to write or express myself lately. Instead I’ve been transferring that expression to work. Feels good to be productive again. In the coming months, you’ll see a brand new 3E Love web site dedicated to you and your story, countless new tees, hoodies, butt shorts, hats, stickers, and more ways for you to help and get involve.
All the IMs, emails, and messages I get daily – “oh my gawddd i love that new tee stevie” or “you should make charms for bracelets” or “you should go to schools and talk about disabilities” or “keep up the work, i look so sexy in your new t-shirt” – keep them coming. I may not respond immediately, but I love hearing your ideas and getting your feedback. But also keep them coming because when I see my credit card statements come in with exorbitant balances next week, I’ll need constant reminders that this is a good idea.
And every time I hear “how can i help, how can i get involved” — I just get so impatient for the future. But please have patience with me so that my own impatience doesn’t ruin my mojo. All of my big picture plans have the end result of including YOU to any extent you wish. Annie was always convinced that even though it was her symbol in the eyes of the law, she could never own it more than someone else; but, by creating it she was given the right to protect its use from ignorance and pity and given the right to use it to spread her message and tell her story. And now that she’s gone I need your help to do this, and even though the company has my name written all over everything, it will only be as successful as those who support it. You.
So yes, I hope to soon open up the doors and welcome you to my army.
Until then, rep the heart on that sleeve, rep it on your facebook page, buy some more swag, tell your friends to do the same, tell your organization, company, or school to celebrate disability awareness month this October with a bulk order for their staff, and lastly……
Be a fan of the company on facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/3E-Loves-Wheelchair-Heart/106155232658
And then click that link Suggest to Friends below the profile picture and start clicking…..
And please read and respond to the discussion topic, “What is 3E Love”. Post photos of you in your shirt, your tattoo, and do it up. For the new web site, I’ll be asking for all of this anyway!
My Wheelchair is Sexy,
Stevie
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BUY STUFF
HTTP://3ELOVE.BIGCARTEL.COM
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MY ANSWER TO “WHAT IS 3E LOVE”
What is 3E Love? What is the Wheelchair Heart symbol?? I get this question almost on a daily basis. They are the hardest of questions for me to answer now that Annie has passed away. Yes, I may have started the company with her and I had the closest relationship possible to Annie and the vision and ideas behind the company and symbol. But even as her and I discussed the plan endlessly, we never came to an ABSOLUTE answer. And I don’t think there ever will be one.
So first, here, here’s the simple answer. 3E Love is a business, a social entrepreneurial experiment, an LLC incorporated in the state of Illinois in 2007 by Annie and myself with the help of a few close friends and family members. The name 3E Love represents Annie’s “three E’s”, “Embrace, Educate, Empower” – her idea behind the best way to break down barriers in society and advance the rights of people with disabilities. The Wheelchair Heart Symbol is a trademarked and copyrighted image created by Annie in 2004.
That’s the boring version of the answer.
“Embrace diversity, educate the community, empower each other, and love life”.
But how do you DO THAT, how do you explain how you are going to do THAT. The truth is, the 3E’s were our best creative approach to building a motto and tagline that best represents the symbol and the company’s societal goals and externalities of our products/services. We don’t embrace diversity. That is not a product or service. We sell t-shirts. Hopefully that will help people embrace diversity. You wear the t-shirt. Hopefully it acts as a conversation starter. “What’s that about?” someone might say when they see you at the store. Now it’s your turn to educate your community, one person at a time. That is only one application of the 3E’s to the company. There are a million more, I hope. Through clothes, books, movies, speeches, etc etc etc. The ideas Annie and I had for the company are endless, but one thing at a time.
One thing at a time because it all started with a symbol — now known as the “wheelchair heart symbol”. Our official name for it is the “International Symbol of Acceptance”, but people won’t google that when they see it on a bumper sticker so we have to refer to it how it looks – it’s best for t-shirt sales. Haha
So the symbol, the symbol is the company. Without it, there would be no 3E. 3E Love in all honesty is a marketing company to market the symbol. So forget the 3E’s for a second. What does the symbol mean??
From a broad perspective, this is what I’ve always told people:
The symbol is an attitude. A Lifestyle. It’s about accepting one’s abilities and rallying around that diversity and turning it into strength. It’s about loving and living life to the fullest no matter who you are and what you look like, what you can or cannot do.
It’s a replacement to the stigmatizing “handicapped symbol”, where the focus is the wheel. Plus, why should people with such conditions as muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, quadriplegia, down syndrome, visual impairments, hearing impairments, Parkinson’s, and even plain old age, all be grouped by a big degrading symbol that means “Watch out!! Someone different parks here or lives here!!” or “Pity them, give them money, feel sorry for them!!” Especially when only a small portion of people utilizing services associated with the ancient “handicapped symbol” even use chairs.
That’s one thing the symbol is not. A symbol of pity. One of Annie’s greatest fears was that the meaning of our symbol would be related to charity, pity, non-profits, or the quest for a cure. It is of course a result of ignorance when people see our symbol and automatically ask “aww where do I donate? Let’s cure the ailing children…” — that’s an ignorance we hope to change. And it’s the reason we attached it to a business, entrepreneurship, and products. It’s a flat out statement if 3E Love is successful from a business perspective that people with disabilities can achieve things without pity, without handouts. It is not a symbol some huge non-caring conglomerate parades out there to raise money for a cause their employees don’t even understand.
Behind our symbol is a company started by people with disabilities, with pride, joy, and passion for who they are and what they can achieve. Call it a “cause” if you insist, as long as the cause has nothing to do with wishing for change to who we are, but instead change to how we are perceived and how our abilities are perceived.
To Annie, it was her tattoo on the back of her shoulder that opened up so many doors for her. People would come up to her on the street and tell her how much they liked it. She would befriend them, they would realize that she is more than a woman in a chair. It was a social conversation piece at the start. It took a few years for her to realize it was so so much more and could have a positive impact on others the way it had for her.
To me, it means — no I am not in a wheelchair, I use one — and I love that I do! I wouldn’t change that for anything. Everything I am and who I have become is directly connected to my disability. And I love the life I have, and try to love it even more on the bad days. The symbol is also a statement – I am not just a person in a chair, I am a man who has friends, a family, who loves, who wants to be loved, who is educated, wants to achieve great things, and who wants to love every year on earth, whether its 85 or 26.
