What people and events have profoundly changed your life?
For a year or so, around age 12, I had often played by an old abandoned well. I would throw stones or other things into it to see if I could hear them hit the bottom. I could hear the echo from the well if I spoke into it. I could smell a strange but rather pleasing odor coming from it. I kept being drawn back to it to learn more. I just couldn't stay away.
There is a lot more I could say, but who wants to give away all their secrets. Just come along with me, and you will discover them just as I did.
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Daddy and I were walking from the creek to the river to fish. Strange how a short walk can have such a life-long impact on people’s lives. When we got to the river, fishing was the furthest thing from our minds. It was the silence of the land and the quiet relationship between father and son that was very much needed that day.
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How does a 6 year old blind child safely walk almost any place he wishes before he learns to use a cane?
How would you do it if you were somehow prevented from seeing the ground in front of you? How would you know what your foot would land on next? What if it's a flight of steps? It might be a rock that moves under your foot. You could be stepping into a pool of slippery mud. How would you keep from falling?
If you're blind, you need to figure out how to deal with these and other similar situations. Who knew that fishing trips would be my answer?
So, come along with me. Put on your fishing garb and prepare to get wet. The water is nice, and there's a lot to discover.
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If you have ever tried to explain what something you can see might look like in the mind of a person who was born without sight, you have likely happened on an experience that taxes your knowledge of whatever language you speak.
Visual objects can be much more easily described. Other people who see may recognize that you are describing an alligator or perhaps a squirrel long before you finish, even if you do not tell them what it is. They have either seen the same thing, or they have seen something that is close enough to have them fill in the remaining details. This is because our vocabulary of visual words is much more robust than that of non-visual words.
Try to describe either animal to a person who has never seen without mentioning color or any reference to other animals. What makes this difficult is people who see have always had visual concepts, and they likely explain things from that context. People who are born without sight do not have those visual concepts to fall back on, and this makes it all but impossible for people who see to know what image a person who is blind will form in their mind.
This is exactly what my parents were up against when I started asking all kind of questions about what critters looked like. The fact that they came as close as they did is a testament to their tremendous desire to help me see the world in a way I could understand.
This story is dedicated to that persistence. It is also a story of their love for me that gave rise to this persistence in the first place.
At the age of six, my father taught me to cross the road that went in front of our house. Little did I know then that there were so many roads, so much traffic, so many city block angles, and other things that would tax my hearing, power of discovery, and my wits.
It is many years later. I am still crossing roads, both literally and figuratively. I have learned two things. Not all roads are alike and one needs all their skills to figure out how to cross all kinds of roads when one is blind. Come to think of it, ultimate discovery starts at one side of the gap of knowledge and one has to figure out how to get to the other side. This episode, however, is only a story about physical roads. I’ll leave the discussion of metaphysical roads for another time.
Enjoy my travels. I certainly have.
This episode describes the way a very young Neal discovered echo location and how his Dad helped him perfect it. For someone who is blind, listening to echos can give one vital information about where one is in space, what is in their space, and where it is located. It might be the closest thing to actual sight that Neal and other people who are blind can use to help them successfully understand and navigate in an unseen world. Podcast sections and the time of each section are as follows: Introduction and who is Neal. 0:00 More about stories. 6:09 Wishing I had remembered to thank my mentors. 7:08 Podcast dedication. 7:53 Story for this episode. 8:57 Contacts and final remarks. 18:07 Your feedback will always be welcome.
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