How I got my very first recorder
It all started with ear-hand coordination and Daddy's faith that I could do what some thought impossible. No, it's not the normal way one acquires a recorder. Even so, that was the day my knowledge and enjoyment of sound changed forever, and I changed right along with it. Just another story that goes way beyond the telling.
My journey from blindness to inner-vision
It started with a simple childhood game of ball I played with my grandparents. My Mom and Dad kept improving the game. Slowly, it became less a game, and more a way of life.
From this game and other fun times with my parents, I discovered I could use my non-visual senses to create a mental image of my surroundings.
One of my very favorite stories
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.
And we thought we were going to fish that day.
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.
Wading my way to independence
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
A blind child wants to know what animals feel like
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.
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.
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