Values

Dana said today that she appreciates Sandy and me because we can disagree or discuss issues and still care about each other. There is too much vitriole and lying in the blind community, disability community or world wide community where threads get cut off and people just turn their backs on other human beings. This should not be so. People should be able to give feedback, and reflect on each others' ideas and ideals. Without that, we have no society. A few of the Higher Balance general news articles were about negativity and how we view things. It is so interesting how our minds work. I do believe cures for many diseases and psychological and mental and physical breakdowns will be discovered, and that computers will help with answers and help us augment ourselves. We canot love everyone, but we must always strive to be better at living and being human, and caring about our fellow human. That is why when people misunderstand me, or won't even try to mend the wounds that I can't get over it, although I have gotten better at walking away, etc. I realize I am more afraid of confronting people and asserting my rights than I used to be. Koraling Llynne

Homer

I had the strangest experience. I hardly remember dreams any more, but I had a really weird one, and noone I knew was in it. I was with some people and we were all introducing ourselves, and a woman who was very dictatorial and scary was there, and then the next day I was going up the stairs to start a new job on my first job. I don't remember much else, and what it was I was doing. I think after nearly 20 years in Alaska, I caught a halibut, a small one, which I should not eat. It was about 10 pounds, and we did not catch yesterday during our trip, but Sandy's son did catch two halibut with his wife and brother and youngest children. It was exciting today, and during our four and a half hour trip, Sandy, my "lion-hearted" husband caught a bigger one about 20 pounds, good work for both of us. It was like glass on the water, and I wish we had taken pictures, and both of us are blind, of course. I also caught a pretty good-sized cod and someone else did also, maybe Sandy's grandson. Sandy's other son is taking care of three young girls, and the eldest called me "grandma" and I did not recognize that, since my own son had no children, not yet, anyway. Koraling Lynne We'll go back tomorrow. Here with the computer plugged in in the central lodge, there is a television, snacks, showers, and bathrooms. Wireless works at the picnic table outside and in the motor home, but is spotty but here plugged in much better access and all. Koraling Lynne

Homer

I just met Mimi and Sam, who live in Pennsylvania and were taking me to the restroom and back and both teachers or husband worked with special education in the state of Pennsylvania. They were driving with another couple in an RV to Anchorage and have been to Alaska 7 years ago. They are getting tired of the RV. I shared my blog, but for the first time had not brought my business cards. It occurred to me in the bathroom thta I may be one of the only or the first blind Jewish women in Alaska, and not only that only a few of us are conginitally blind. When I first moved here, Pat meek said there were only 10 people with retinopathy of prematurity who live here. Hmm. Not sure how many there are now with congenital blindness. Many are blinded later through disease, accident or other condition. Some are blinded thorugh retinal blastoma, and some through drugs or even alcoholism. I had never thought about the issues of being Jewish, blind and very few of us with retinopathy of prematurity etc. I should write an article for the Anchorage Daily News about that. I'm not the only Jewish disabled woman who lived here, but a totally blind Jewish woman with prematurity and a twin I think I am an anomaly. Koraling Lynne

Homer

It's after 11:00, and I agot through everything in my forum for the retreat at the end of June, and downloading a meditation mix. I had burger, caribou hot dogs and peppermint tea, water and corn on the cob! Yum. Koraling Lynne

In Homer with family

It's great to be at the picnic table with my hsuband, his sons and daughters-in-law and assorted children. Great bunch of warm-hearted people. Loving people, even if different in other ways. It's sunny, after 9:00 p.m. and beautiful. Kkoraling Lynne

more about movies

In that movie about the blind couple in the 1960's, they were afraid taht the blind woman would start a fire, so they finally after six years gave them a cognitively impaired child. Koraling Lynne

Great Networking Class Today

I have never thought so much of everyone's creativity for today's webinar on networking. It was the fourth class, and the first time I was not bumped off line. Everyone was so interesting, and we gave each other suggestions. This is the way it should be--where everyone can see everyone's potential. I love the strength of "work because poverty sucks" by one of the participants, and he could soften it, but it was really the way he felt about his life and others' lives. It was softened, but most of it liked it that way, but for professionals, it could be something better. But noone is going to forget that tag line. Jackie helped me with my tag line yesterday, but it still is not perfect. Koraling Lynne

Attitudinal Access

For many disabilities, architectural barriers are the problem, but for blind people, it's the attitudes taht are the barrier for us. So, how will we change them? Legislation may bllunt the problem, but people must be changed one at a time, or at least a few at a time. Financial issues are not the same for us, as we are the "worthy poor" as I have said. My parents are older, and I want to help them, not continue to have them assist me, and how horrible that I can't make a decent living to give back what they gave. In the movie about the blind couple, she tries to commit suicide and sees a psychiatrist. It is no coincidence nro accidental that we assuage our troubles with addicitons of one sort or another or with depression or other acceptable forms of learned helplessness throwbacks, stemming from isolation and not being valued. There is no excuse for the blatant discrimination that still dogs us. Yes, technology has been a mixed blessing for us. Those of us who are women are more at risk for depression and suicide, even though the first blind person I heard about, I might have mentioned committed suicde I heard from Pat Logan because he had a mster's degree and could not get a job in the 1960's. How evil and sad. We have to do better, much better. We have to stop blaming blind people for their learned helplessness and victimization, and I saw many blind people who would be abused and preyed upon because they did not know how to feel good about themselves. Koraling Lynne So, attitudes and being told what to think, who to date, or whatever takes its toll, and how to dress, what we look like, how to make decisions and on what basis, and living "in charge" lives, that is hard. Men, I have always contended, feel emasculated once they become blind because they are not respected by society, and cannot compete, as society thinks, on the standards the oppressor thinks. These things must be discussed. Koraling Lynne

Family Struggles

One movie was about a child who was kidnapped and found 13 years later, but went back to her parents she grew up with, whose daughter had stolen the baby. Thee kidnapper was in a cult and died as a prostitute. But you cannot fit a 13-year-old into a new family at that age, and expect her to work things out with the nw family. There are so many problems that society does not cope with adequately. I can helpt osolve problems, but I do get demoralized many times. Koraling Lynne

Prejudice Still Exists

Wow, I just saw a movie about a blind couple trying to adopt. They got the "garbage" of children rejected by their parents who might be abused, have alcoholic parents, mental illness, or who had severe disabilities. I don't think things have changed today, even though the setting was Missouri in the 1960's was the setting. The couple, the Lees, were saddled with people who thought they should not marry because they should be with sighted partners. Joanne and I spoke about these things at some point about it being easier for blind men to find sighted spouses than the opposite. How we felt about having not very good models for relationships. This couple had hope dashed more than once, and a developmentlaly disabled child social workers felt would be better placed in an institution than with blind parents? What sickness in this world when we should be grateful, thankful, oh, yes, never complain, never, never, and yes, I understand why when a life is a big life, one can see the disability diminish because in the 1990's and afterwards, I have had advantages and luck on my side to help others, and that is what I want this blog to do, to restore hope, forgiveness, because people do the best they can. I even heard the wife, Ethel, speaking about Radio Information Service, and these were supposedly the first blind couple to adopt children. They would not place a gifted child with the parents, because they could not be sure that that environment would be good for the girl. What nonsense! But forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness, that is so important. Love is so important. I mean those who love and care should not be stepped on as we are. Sometimes, we lose it, or don't have the "right" attitude, but we are human, also. Both these movies had dog guides as both women had dog guides. I wonder if people try to get more women to get dogs? The dog we have is "misguided" as my husband says. She is our pet, and many thought we should never try to have a pet, though she was in seven training classes, and a service dog for my son, and she was purchased for me. Saying we should not train a dog and have her to perform emotional service and decide for us and we cannot make our own decisions or mistakes and this is almost as bad as saying we cannot adopt, and that was in 2003. The mother in this movie felt that they would divorce, and that a blind mate was not the best for her son. Even her friends tried to discourage her. We don't have too much support. My best friend from high school adopted, and I'm sure it was a pain for them, and they did adopt disabled children. So, much to ponder upon. Koraling Lynne

Learning

How do we learn about making decisions if everyone tells us what to do? It brought back memories of the Braille Institute of America on Vermont Avenue. I have to remember thta I first heard about it when Becky Tsurumoto and I received our first dog guide from Guide Dogs for the Blind in 1974, and Wendy Stecher was there also with a dog named Dick. Hesper was my first dog, but not the best. It's just that Vermont Avenue where I lived pretty close by because I lived on North Heliotrope, and was taking yoga there, and went to the Braille Institute quite a bit. Becky had taught Braille, I believe, and I moved to California in September of 1977. How odd to hear about a woman with a dog guide and I loved my dogs, going out, taking the bus, getting lost, or whatever, and don't feel as independent as I once did. So, be it, I wish I could go back twenty years. It's just not fair, when I would work from 59th Street to 14th Street in New York, and just be me, but did move to David's house, and raised Dimas on my own for half his life. Networking, that was a great thing to do. Movie is over. There will be another one about blind parents trying to adopt a child. How my parents really were afraid and wanted me to have an abortion. I could never do that!

Self-discovery

Blind people have a hankering to explore. This movie is really about over-protective parents, terrified about a girl's development as a child growing into womanhood. Her brother is jealous of her, and feels that he doesn't get any attention. How sad, and I'm sure that it brings up some worries that mom and dad had. I'm sure when I left home and felt over-burdened, they were worried, but I cannot remember. We need to make mistakes, make our discoveries, and about our attitude and everything. When a person grows up blind, it's markedly different with parents that form our self-concept. How do we learn about ourselves? This woman is saying she wants to learn about taking care of herself. Right now, they are in a daily living class. They are talking about tagging clothes, and folding money, and I was never good about sewing when I learned in about eighth grade. I was so lucky to learn mobility early, and was so angry when ded followed Caryn and me to get some bread at the store. He was afraid I was going to get lost. I now have perspective. I do feel bad for Peter, because maybe Steven and I took all the supposed "attention." How can things be better for disabled or blind children? When in the movie Karen watned to help with the shop, her dad could not figure out how she would not take too much time? My God, when will society change? Her mother thinks that she did too much to "rescue" her. It's not our fault that we don't think we can do anything, really, especially when we hear in junior high or middle school that we may never got a job, (so what then are our prospects)? Dad said that he would not necessarily hire a disabled person. If your own parents don't see your abilities, even though he did take me to speak to student nurses. It's so sad to see someone making their way and parents have no support. How can I blame them then? They had very few groups or little time to not be stressed about their own lives, etc. I know so much better, and never reallly got parenting skills with Dimas, either. He loves me, but what will he think twenty years from now? He is such a loving person, and I did not like when my parents had told me what to do. People thought I was self-assured, but I was darned scared. Koraling Lynne

Curiosity never Killed Any Cats

I have always asked questions. I always felt that questions were far more instructive than the answers. I asked why things were spelled the way they were when I was a child, and I could not spell Puerto Rico and thought it was Porto Rico so should be spelled Peurto or something, because it did not seem right. I did not really know how to pronounce at whatever young age, perhaps ten years old. We never can learn because certain questions are off limits or tabu. Yet, children are naturally curious, and when they are told "Shh!" and shooed away from disabled children because they (we) look different, what message does that send about how "accessible" we are? Are we strange, different, aberrant, or abhorent? What's the matter with her eyes, legs, facial expressions, voice, or whatever? So, being curious is natural and a good thing! Koraling Lynne So, ask away.

clarification

If I were to say anything, I'd say how sad it is when I called someone who said (his words and not mine) he could not know how to use a computer and he was "wheelchair-bound" and how lonely and isolated he must have been. How darned sad! There are so many people who are called shut-ins, but they are also "shut-outs." They are not part of our community, or requrested to give any feedback about their lives, and here was this man, Kenneth, who just had no way of geting out, he said. I just felt so sad for him. I did not know him, but I just feel that so many of us are "out of sight; out of mind." Koraling Lynne I have so much emotion inside of me. I cannot be as observer and objective as I want to be to surrender to detach or anything like that.

Still Learning the Blog Features

Well, Steve tried to help me with links but I still could not figure that out. How frustrating and annoying, but the observer I must be, hmm. He said that he was at the graduation on Tuesday for Leadership Anchorage. It was nice to see Nick and work with Susie on phoning for the Chugach Electric Board of Directors. I don't know what to do about so many things! Koraling Lynne I did not know that "google reader" could view blogs, and that is great, but I don't know about commenting through the google reader feed. Interesting, and thanks for lurking or looking and for your interest. I try to make it interesting, and I hope I can still do that. I don't don't want to turn people off; I want to bring people in. Thanks, thanks for reading. Koraling Lynne

Repeating myself

Sorry, I repeated the small, medium, and great thing twice, and Josiah from NineStar said that, and two people on Tuesday mentioned the Alaska Center for the Blind--one from Municipal Light and Power, who donates to them, and Vermont, who used to work there as a receptionist, and I remember a little, but I cannot remember who was the receptionist in 1999 when I was borrowed by Carolyn Peter to teach Braille for a few months. Hmm. Well, no comments? We'll have to see if anyone does comment when I am more out there in the community. I have friends of all ages, political persuasions, religions, etc. I don't really have many owning class friends, so do I have a prejudice? That is wrong, if I do harbor prejudices against people with a good amount of money? Am I suspicious, or what? That is not right. I was raised as middle-class, and I don't want to have stereotypes about everyone. I have had friends of every religion, but not Islamic, which is also sad. Why not? I guess I really have not traveled in those circles. Well, broadening, not narrowing is what I like to do. So, any observations taken as anything but thinking about big issues that plague were not meant as generalizations. People into social control, such as charities were in the 1800's were about not social change but social control. How do we get people to be more "compliant" "conformist" "socially normal" and that was all middle class, education and corporal punishment that I used to read about in "Little Women" or other books I read when growing up. I never could get into "The Scarlet Letter" either. So much moralizing and punishment instead of understanding people's differences. I read a lot of books about witch craft "Tituba of Salem Village" and the 1700's and the fear of it, and the killing people because they were afraid of herbal medicine and African-American people. We have made some terrible mistakes when we don't understand differences and yet we are all the same under the clothing, are we not? We all get disappointed, make mistakes, and all have value, and we all know hhow to feel, to hurt, to understand if we allow ourselves. Koraling Lynne

Reflections on leadership

Whenever I see people who can speak well or I think say great things, I take notice. That is true of a young man I wanted to speak with on Tuesday. I believe I mentioned that he wanted to know about standing in front of me, or just acting naturally. I asked him about his statement at an AmeriCorps meeting that he was thinking that disabled people had an asset and not a liability. I think he was thinking of our hearing ability, but that doesn't always "ring" true. I said our resourcefulness is one, though that springs to mind. He said there are prejudices and that I could do well to train people on some of these issues. At the Leadership Anchorage graduation, one of the projects was about mentoring young people from Youth correctional centers. I knew about that, because that was one of the areas for Martin Luther King Jr. day with AmeriCorps. I realized how connected I was in the community, keeping abreast of activities and initiatives. So, back to leadership. Leadership is about mentoring, delegating, seeing beyond the coating and surface of an individual. It is bringing out the best in others, and modeling that for them. It is not about personal attacks, but it can be observations. The young man i met with at NineStar said something like this: a small thinker thinks about people and personalities and I believe looks through the filter of people, the person who is in the mediocre category sees everything through the lens of organizations (perhaps affiliations) and the great thinkers look at life or issues through the lens of ideas. When people have gotten upset with me, it is because I do think of a big picture, global ideas, solving problems, and observation. My comments about different groups of people are more how they exclude others, or their point of view as having access to power and privilege puts them in a certain category. Three dirvers in a row, all fine people were playing religious music or words when I was on the paratransit Tuesday and Wednesday, and I believe that that is a private thing and we need to make that decision for ourselves. Religion, spirituality and politics are so personal, and can be emotional, but they do not have to be that way. I have talked about noteworthy Republicans, and Elvi Gray-Jackson once saw me when I was walking with my last dog Merry and helped me find my home one day. She also spoke in classes in Public Administration (budgets class) and was my mentor for Disability Mentor Day, and I have a great respect for her. I see people as individuals, and I try to understand their motives, hurts and anything else. Well, that's enough for now, blog fans. The Networking and marketing class is going well, but I cannot figure out Flash Player 10, and I do not like Internet Explorer 9 and Mozilla seems to freeze up, and so does Microsoft Word. Oh, ,my poor computer. I would rather see the positive and the good in people, than dwell on the negative. Koraling Lynne

Seeing Inside the Coating

I was speaking to Josiah that I see beneath the surface dirt of people, and chip away at them, and see their real core self. I see people's uniqueness and benefit and attraction to others. I even saw that a few weeks ago, when at the donor reception the speaker talked about what could be viewed as "good" or "bad" that an experience that seems unbearable to some can be transformed to propel one forward. I did mention to Josiah that treating some disabled people as "exceptions" and not as the norm, and giving all the marbles to some and throwing others out is not the way to share and delegate as leaders. I said I see many people with skills who are, as I said before, kicked to the curb. He mentioned that he should be natural, and I said I can usually tell if someone is nervous around disabled folks. He said I have a lot of energy. So, lauding someone's success is excellent as all the people in Leadership Anchorage were so creative, and special, and cooperative and innovative. I don't want to stir stuff up, and Josiah said something about how small-minded people concnetrate on people, and mediocre and middle-sized leaders look at organizations, and great people look at ideas. It's ideas that are important, though they may seem theoretical, and what could be more exciting and innovative? Improving things, and realizing that violence is not just private and silent and in the home, but is fostered by our attitudes, biases, sexism, belittling, stereotypes and rules, and that it is more about society and a systemic problem, and not just an interpersonal, individual problem. There are antecedent causes, and we cannot have a "Not In My Backyard" mentality. We cannot sweep things under the rug, but must bring them out for examination in various shades of light. Koraling Lynne

Other Observations

The other day, when we were at Gwennie's, an Anchorage restaurant, the woman who brought us to our table was named Roxanne. Roxanne was my best friend in third grade in New York. She moved to Florida when I was in sixth grade, and I remember the wall phone and crying. Her mother was getting re-married. Roxy was moving to Gainesville. Her mother was Elsa Esther Inga (or something) and I thought it was so interesting that she had three names. I have been looking back, and listening to "Dark Shadows" was one of my favorite programs as a child. Well, that's all for now, I just want to work things out with everyone, and have Anonymous post, and SueEllen post, and I have trouble letting go because I genuinely cerish, adore and care about people and humanity. Koraling Lynne

Interesting Observations

I'd rather be a dispassionate observer than I was when I react and I am passionate and a non-conformist. To be the observer is good. Change is so important, and yet we resist it? We plant our feet and drag our feet. If we don't change, it will leave us behind and change us anyway. Experience will change us. I get so inspired by new ideas and thinking and process with Leadership Anchorage. I have not gone to a graduation in a while, and I saw James Kirkland, the great person from the VA Health Center, and Deanna, (I hope I spelled her name right) from Kenya who was in policy with me, and who just graduated, and she thinks I am so skilled. Harry Need was there, because his wife was in this class. I also was happy to listen to the Lieutenant Governor, who was live and in person, which was pretty cool. Jim came up to me twice, and he said it was nice to hear from me. All of the projects I knew something about including the Immigration Justice Project, the Spenard Farmers' Market establishing access to people with food needs for women, infants and children, seniors and food stamp recipients. A volunteer Center was another idea, which was great. I cannot remember the other project, but those three were really exciting. what did I miss? Koraling Lynne

Reflections on Yesterday's Movies

On a site named www.mytvland.net, I heard four really true-life movies last night or yesterday, I should say. One was about a person who was wrongly convicted and lost her children to her sister, and things went downhill for her son, and daughter tried to commit suicide and her sister's husband divorced her, and she pleaded clemency and worked in the Children's center at this prison. I don't know what state it was in, but they had a week where parents could be with their children in the summer to cement relationships, etc. She got released since clemency was approved. The next movie was about a highschool program which was "No More Victims" for children of incarcerated parents; it was also very good and the children supported each other, and improved their grades and they had endured rape, the killing of one parent by another, or maybe a step-parent, and other violent crimes. The program worked. The third movie was about an Amish family whose baby was killed by stone-throwing of other townspeople. An assertive but principled person was told he could never win, but he managed to stop this for other people, and call attention to the discrimination against the Amish. The best one was the last about a Punjabi wife who killed her husband after ten years of degradation, sexual abuse, and rape by her husband, and control. She was told she was "nothing" as a woman, and killed him because of diminished responsibility. People lied in order to convict her and she had a language barrier (she was not a Native English speaker) and she had no ideas of her surroundings, and was given life imprisonment. A fellow prisoner, her cell mate, called her own brother who was a solicitor in England, and was able to appeal and get her sentence commuted. I cried with these movies especially the first one "A Mother's Rage" and I forgot the last one's name, but all of these were based on true stories. When will we realize that bullying, control and abuse does not work, and nor does intimidation? Enough! Love and education and communication--these are the only answers. I am so tired of people not sharing and fear being the order of the day! Koraling Lynne Cynicism and mistrust are aspects of depression and hopelessness that do not work either. Humans are special, and all of us need to realize taht we are all in the same boat.

Wonderful article about Improving Ourselves

This article was sent by my friend Marvelena, and sent to her by Richard, and it just bends the mind, just a little but not beyond the possible. Koraling Lynne Subject: Daniel Kish -- The blind man who taught himself to see

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bookofjoe/~3/gf7_2XxHaJI/the-blind-man-who-taught-himself-to-see.html
via Byline

[image: M203bata]

Excerpts from Michael Finkel's March 2011 Men's Journal articlefollow.

Daniel Kish has been sightless since he was a year old. Yet he can mountain bike. And navigate the wilderness alone. And recognize a building as far away as 1,000 feet. How? The same way bats can see in the dark.

The first thing Daniel Kish does, when I pull up to his tidy gray bungalow in Long Beach, California, is make fun of my driving. “You’re going to leave it that far from the curb?” he asks. He’s standing on his stoop, a good 10 paces from my car. I glance behind me as I walk up to him. I am, indeed, parked about a foot and a half from the curb.

The second thing Kish does, in his living room a few minutes later, is remove his prosthetic eyeballs. He does this casually, like a person taking off a smudged pair of glasses. The prosthetics are thin convex shells, made of acrylic plastic, with light brown irises. A couple of times a day they need to be cleaned. “They get gummy,” he explains. Behind them is mostly scar tissue. He wipes them gently with a white cloth and places them back in.

Kish was born with an aggressive form of cancer called retinoblastoma, which attacks the retinas. To save his life, both of his eyes were removed by the time he was 13 months old. Since his infancy — Kish is now 44 — he has been adapting to his blindness in such remarkable ways that some people have wondered if he’s playing a grand practical joke. But Kish, I can confirm, is completely blind.

He knew my car was poorly parked because he produced a brief, sharp click with his tongue. The sound waves he created traveled at a speed of more than 1,000 feet per second, bounced off every object around him, and returned to his ears at the same rate, though vastly decreased in volume.

But not silent. Kish has trained himself to hear these slight echoes and to interpret their meaning. Standing on his front stoop, he could visualize, with an extraordinary degree of precision, the two pine trees on his front lawn, the curb at the edge of his street, and finally, a bit too far from that curb, my rental car. Kish has given a name to what he does — he calls it “FlashSonar” — but it’s more commonly known by its scientific term, echolocation.

Bats, of course, use echolocation. Beluga whales too. Dolphins. And Daniel Kish. He is so accomplished at echolocation that he’s able to pedal his mountain bike through streets heavy with traffic and on precipitous dirt trails. He climbs trees. He camps out, by himself, deep in the wilderness.
He’s lived for weeks at a time in a tiny cabin a two-mile hike from the nearest road. He travels around the globe. He’s a skilled cook, an avid swimmer, a fluid dance partner. Essentially, though in a way that is unfamiliar to nearly any other human being, Kish can see.

Kish and a handful of coworkers run a nonprofit organization called World Access for the Blind , headquartered in Kish’s home. World Access offers training on how to gracefully interact with one’s environment, using echolocation as a primary tool. So far, in the decade it has existed, the organization has introduced more than 500 students to echolocation. Kish is not the first blind person to use echolocation, but he’s the only one to meticulously document it, to break it down into its component parts, and to figure out how to teach it. His dream is to help all sight-impaired people see the world as clearly as he does.

There are two reasons echolocation works. The first is that our ears, conveniently, are located on both sides of our head. When there’s a noise off to one side, the sound reaches the closer ear about a millisecond — a thousandth of a second — before it reaches the farther ear. That’s enough of a gap for the auditory cortex of our brain to process the information. It’s rare that we turn the wrong way when someone calls our name. In fact, we’re able to process, with phenomenal accuracy, sounds just a few degrees off-center. Having two ears, like having two eyes, also gives us the auditory equivalent of depth perception. We hear in stereo 3-D. This allows us, using only our ears, to build a detailed map of our surroundings.

The second reason echolocation works is that humans, on average, have excellent hearing. We hear better than we see. Much better. On the light spectrum, human eyes can perceive only a small sliver of all the varieties of light — no ultraviolet, no infrared. Converting this to sound terminology, we can see less than one octave of frequency. We hear a range of 10 octaves.

Kish does not go around clicking like a madman. He uses his click sparingly and, depending on his location, varies the volume. When he’s outside, he’ll throw a loud click. In good conditions, he can hear a building 1,000 feet away, a tree from 30 feet, a person from six feet. Up close, he can echolocate a one-inch diameter pole. He can tell the difference between a pickup truck, a passenger car, and an SUV. He can locate trail signs in the forest, then run his finger across the engraved letters and determine which path to take. Every house, he explains, has its own acoustic signature.

He can hear the variation between a wall and a bush and a chain-link fence.
Bounce a tennis ball off a wall, Kish says, then off a bush. Different response. So too with sound. Given a bit of time, he can echolocate something as small as a golf ball. Sometimes, in a parking garage, he can echolocate the exit faster than a sighted person can find it.

When it’s all put together, says Kish, he has very rich, very detailed pictures in his head.

“In color?” I ask.

“No,” he says. “I’ve never seen color, so there’s no color. It’s more like a sonar, like on the Titanic.”

He attended the University of California Riverside, then earned two master’s degrees — one in developmental psychology, one in special education. He wrote a thesis on the history and science of human echolocation, and as part of that devised one of the first echolocation training programs. The ability of some blind individuals to perceive objects well before they could touch them was noted as early as 1749 by French philosopher Denis Diderot. He theorized it had something to do with vibrations against the skin of the face. In the early 1800s, a blind man from England named James Holman journeyed around the world — he may have been the most prolific traveler in history up to that point, Magellan and Marco Polo included — relying on the echoes from the click of his cane. Not until the 1940s, in Karl Dallenbach’s lab at Cornell University, was it irrefutably proven that humans could echolocate.

The thesis was the first time Kish really studied what he’d been doing all his life; it was the beginning, as he put it, of “unlocking my own brain.”
He then became the first totally blind person in the United States (and likely the world) to be fully certified as an orientation and mobility specialist — that is, someone hired by the visually impaired to learn how to get around.
From Koraling Lynne: Sign me up, because this is something taht will help everyone access and understand how to navigate through their environment.

Stopping for now

I love people and teamwork. Some people do not get buoyed by people, but I do. I just get sad and disappointed when someone is upset or misunderstands me, and criticizes me, or I think they have done so. I really am getting exactly what I need from the networking and marketing class, and it is a good and interesting group of people. However, both times, I have been knocked off or lost sound. My computer was updating last week, and this week, I just lost sound for a while. I have been told taht I am a good networker, and extravert, and see beneath the exterior of people to their core. Yes, it may not seem that way from some of the comments, but I do see through the defenses and identities people construct down to a different part of themselves. We are not simple; we are complex beings with many sources of where our so-called personality comes from. Okay stopping for now. Koraling Lynne Keep looking. I did notice that the blog is divided into April and May, so you'll have to dig deep if you want to see all the messages in April.

Please keep commenting everyone!

How can we keep the conversation going if you abandon this blog? I have learned about myself and it has become more amorphous than I thought it would be. I was discussing with my son's father how when we were young produced the two publications I mentioned. He has copies of "Hands," the poetry magazine, but not "Braille Feminist Review" and I realize that I have always wanted to share some of what we had written. He said he had some old copies. So, conversation is important. I find that I do care what people think, and don't want to be mean, but certain divisions keep us mistrusting and devisive and not insightful, and access to power of some is not good for others, instead of sharing. This toolbar is not showing up as it used to, so it is hard to edit what I am writing now. David said in an e-mail that I was beautiful, and was sounding pretty spiritual about being a bubble on this earth. So, keep commenting, and disagreeing as different is just fluff, as we all can love, care, have dreams and be who we can if we are allowed. I have to figure out how to see the whole message. Well, it's time for bed. I try to help others when I can. Koraling Lynne I could not write yesterday, because "blogger" was being updated.

Cleaning up

Hello, blog fans. Annonymous, I did not mean to make a blanket shot at people who are Protestant, and I meant mostly for scared, phony, pretentious people who act nice and do not show who they are. Everyone has merit, and I detest bully people also, ones taht do not encourage oters to be all they can be. People who do not try to raise others and just think of how they can get ahead are anathema to me. I had a professor who was a sociopath, in my opinion, and he was very intelligent. However, your method of operation is to belittle and take confidence from people, and not encourage and motivate people, something is wrong with that teacher. I don't want people to be a cookie cutter of me, but to be their brilliant lovely selves. I want to cheer on the person I heard at the appreciation and donor event last week, and I also want to disagree when I disagree with someone's view of the world. People can be so mean and not think of the other person. I see what's underneath a phony or bully type, and it is mostly fear. People are afraid to show themselves. I guess I am not all that proper, and cannot be anything but myself. I am sorry if I go all over the map, but I think of many things. I have seen some very interesting articles about blind people, new ideas in science, health, metaphysics, and spirituality. We are all unique, and we should all be treated as unique.

congratulations

Congratulations to the Municipality of Anchorage and the Alaska Center for the Blind. Apparently, the park is going to have accessible signage, and the Municipal Parks and Recreation Department helped to establish this and the unveiling is tomorrow at 2:15 until 2:45. That is great to have accessible signage. Good and kudos for the partnership. Koraling Lynne

How people treat people

My comments about religion, (I personally believe that religion separates people anyway) are not just for Protestants or Catholics, Jews or Moslems. If it happens to someone else, it can happen to me. People who frighten people, or as is happening in Uganda, putting gay people to death, or in Georgia, teens who are undocumented are not being allowed to attend school events like the prom, or Moslems are being told how to pray and their mosques are being destroyed, or Jews have been chased all over the world, but the Orthodox are a little rigid (though comforting, I understand for many) I want to think for myself, and not be told what to think, how to think, when to think, and want to respect each other. I think the most important thing is how to respect each other and how we treat each other, and ur health. Apparently, according to a radio show, Evangelicals in the U.s. hae helped Uganda craft their law to either put gay people in jail for life or kill them. How humane. I remember reading "Tituba of Salem Village" when I was in high school, and when people were hung as "witches" and they were mostly traditional healers, but they scared people, or the holocaust against Armenians happened or the holocaust towards Jews and gypsies and others occurred, we must speak out. We cannot label people, and I may say there are tendencies and trends, and people get indoctrinated, which was my point about installation of patterns of behavior especially for middle-class, white people who are not only Protestant, but others too who grow up in middle-class society and have to hold up the system. I have friends of all political persuasions, and religions. Sorry to go off sometimes. I went off the railes and got derailed. However, the people I don't blame because racism, homophobia, fear of those who are different is inculcated and installed in our Protestant and Judeo-Christian socio-economic system. Work was very much a reason schools existed which was to teach us how to conform and be good workers. I can't quite remember the philosophers or folks that formed our ideas, but Adam Smith, poor fellow, has been misinterpreted. My husband said we got an unsolicited rosary and I've seen a cross, but not a rosary today. Hmm. I wonder if anyone I know would want one. I attended Christian-Jewish dialogs in Los Angeles in the 1980's, and started learning about my Jewish heritage, and started to learn about how Jews and Christians see things differently. My parents don't understand why my older brother and I are spiritual, but I have always been interested in religion, and churches, and different synagogues. I went to different Jewish organizations in Virginia because I was fascinated by the egalitarian Reconstructionist view of Judaism. Maybe they know what Heaven or some way of living is since their founders lived until 101 and the other until 95. We don't understand that our culture gives us false paradigms, and either/or thinking, and mistrust, and the "self-made man" etc. No one is "self-made." As I said, some of the most frightening people I knew were not Jewish, but some Jews I did not want to be like, but I do have an affinity with them, because there is a certain something that I relate to, even though I am more spiritual. Many of us who are blind get told, "God bless you" and are told that they will pray for us. That always set me off. So, I believe everyone needs to find their own path, and that spirituality and meditation are important for keeping down blood pressure, and stress. Have I redeemedmyself? I do not mean to write generalizations, but as I said certain cultural norms are evident and we don't know how we have been "beatendown" by certain work ethic ideas, and "cleanliness is next to Godliness" and that people are doing "the Lord's work." I'm interested to learn more and more about people. I found that certain Islamic views are analogous to ritualistic and Orthodox Jewish ideas. As I said, there is something comforting about knowing all the rules, and all, but I once went to visit an Orthodox family, and there is a hand-washing ritual, and no one can speak (even the little two-year-old) until the washing is done, and the bread is eaten, I think. But I understand how it fills the need for connection, and answers some complex problems. My dad, son, former boyfriend and husband are all self-professed atheists. I was "nothing" for much of my young life, but I am not now. God is a force in nature but is not punitive or deterministic. We need to speak about these things, and politics, and how we treat people and how we can learn and get closer to each other is so important! Koraling Lynne

Not Far from the Tree

My son is so beautiful. He helps me think through things. He says I have a first-hand knowledge of disability. I do, but not from a "for sales sign" on me. I want others to be successful, and applaud this young man for grabbing on to the kie and flying. As my son said, he capitalized on his opportunities. I cultivate people's passions, and we were speaking about education. I said that people should be shown early how to cultivate their unique skills, and as SueEllen intoned we are all unique. He said I should look at Bryan Tracy (not sure how he spells his name) and read books on personal development somewhat like the "human potential" movement in the 1980's. Remember that, blog fans and family? I agree that finding people's hidden talents, their self-talk or self-thought and finding their own individual paths and kites that fly, and of course how people sabotage themselves. My disappointment is palpable sometimes, but if we are the "biology of belief" (sorry Bruce Lipton) who I heard on line last week, and is so prescient or so "forward-thinking" about cellular biology, and with ahppiness, we can change it. Cellular biology is a field people should nknow more about. Being unhappy makes people's body formulate illnesses also. When people have tragic or sympathetic situations, they can parley that and gain from the pathos of that story. People love come-back stories. It is my love for people that is so high that I fall hard every time I am beset with disappointment. We all want tand need to be noticed, at least many of us want to be noticed and recognized for our accomplishments. My friend Anna, who I knew in high school, said I was good at poetry/writing, and being a musician. I played piano, violin and some guitar. Thanks to the Lighthouse Music School. We would harmonize in their cloak room when we were in our teens to Wrighteous Brothers (Bill Medley) songs "You are my soul and my heart's inspiration." I started to write something called "The Lighthouse Pace." analogous to "Peyton Place" that was popular at the time. I wrote about how we thought and what we talked about, but don't know where that is now. It would be interesting to read. (Sigh). We loved to sing and harmonize, and Caryn and I were best friends and we played "water leap-frog in the pool and called the counselor "Beasty Bill." Okay, I've gone far afield. The "Lighthouse" was really "The New York Association of the Blind" Koraling Lynne But back to my son, he believes in people, and has a real sense of things. He is reflective just like his mother.

Imperfections and Blotches

Yes, SueEllen and Annonymous, sense of humor is so important. A driver for AnchorRides, our paratransit system said that her boyfriend who happens to be Jewish like me talks so much. Well, that is part of the reason he talks so much, we are very heady "people of the Book" you know. I said she should put up her hands and say "surrender" when he talks too much. Mom used to talk or my whole family, and I could not get in a word edgewise. Hmm. I am not locking or knocking Protestants, because they have all done the best they could, and I have many good friends. But, unfortunately, in my re-evaluation counseling (www.rc.org) it says that there are unique patterns of the Protestant cultures and all other religious persuasions that cause us to have some distinct patterns. One intersting fact that was noted at a workshop was Jews say good-bye and never leave, and others leave and never say good-bye. Jews have the backdrop of the Holocaust that I believe is in every generation, and others have other issues and of course there was the Protestant reformation against the backdrop of the discrimination by Catholics, but Catholics were not always treated correctly either. Sorry for being all over the map. I don't want to be defensive, blaming, but to be funny and loving, and caring. My son is so dear to me, and I spoke to him today, and he put things into perspective. Our abilities, experiences, and "emotional intelligence" is so important. If you have not read "Emotional Intelligence" by Daniel Goleman, that explains how our emotions are shaped and how our early childhood forms our delay of gratification, patience, team-work, reaction to situations, the way we interact with others, relationships, work life etc. Koraling Lynne Keep writing, Annonymous and SueEllen. Koraling Lynne I want this to be positive. I see seeds in people, and I want to help them bloom and then follow up to make sure the flowers are healthy and bountiful.

Looking back

In the late 1970's, David and I launched "Media Projects for the Blind," because we both read and wrote poetry. we ahd a few issues of that, and then I started "Braille Feminist Review" and we split up. That was when I was about 23 or 24. The poetry magazine was called "Hands." I don't know why it was called that, but it was an intriguing name. Most people don't know I wrote poetry, was part of a group then called "Revolutionary Song Workshop" and was part of the L.A. Women's Community chorus for five years, where I was a soloist for one or two of those. I made friends in the chorus when I moved from New York to Los Angeles, and have never really sang in Anchorage except for the synagogue, and in Juneau, I participated in a torch song event for a week, I think. I was part of many folk shows for the national convention (now a conference and convention) in various cities, was an opening singer before general session once, and sang for folk shows for AIRRES for many years, and for the Convention and Visitor's Center once. AIRRES stands for the Alaska Information Radio Reading and Education Service. I servedon international boards of radio reading services, edited their newsletter for a couple of years, and was chair and co-chair of the awards committee. I have done a lot of things, but I was helped by many people. But now, when I need assistance and to network, it's hard for me to decide between or among my various interests and capabilities. Koraling Lynne

How do you describe an Elephant

A different view can have people seeing elephants from different ways. Blindness has different ways of seeing things. When people become blind, they hear about one group or way of doing things or another, and I don't blame that newly-blinded person who is a blank slate and tabula raza. We all come from different cultural perspectives. Not all generalities are true. Not all Protestants, thouth many tend to be scared and therefore pretentious and more passive as the dominant class white middle-class men and to a lesser extent, women. Those who are on the margins are less contrived and constrained. I apprecaite Kevin's comment, (a pseudonym or nome do plume) about how we navigate our lives. I have known other people with visual impairments who never knew they were different, and never felt different, because they did not grow up around their cohort or peers. A young woman who explores and asks questions and is inquisitive such as one I mentor uses me as a mentor and role model. We need to wrap each other in love and self-confidence. Self-esteem is over-used. I want to be more than the "blind" label with shuffling feet, dependent and all that would imply. But those in leadership have an obligation to help the next person to glide along and life and have experiences that will help them maintin their life and well-being. Yes, a newly -blinded person, or one who has been attacked by an animal, or had an accident as two people in Alaska have had need to create their life anew, but that does make them better than those of us who are congenitally blind. That is somewhat of a misnomer, since I did not have inherited blindness, but I had to work hard, thinking that I could change things. I was the first woman I know of in Alaska with a blog, first woman in the legislature in a professional manner to pave the way for the next person, and coordinated four legislative aides who were three Republicans and one Democrat alongwith the Director of Division of Elections and Independent Living advocates and Alaska Independent Blind of which I am the President and was then, but am pretty burned out about blindness. Though I cannot escape it altogether, I understand why this young man wants to mitigate it as much as possible. However, it is a part, albeig a small part of our identity. Please, Kevin, respond to this. I think it is essential that we speak about how we view blindness and the role it might play in our lives. Unless we help each other mitigate it, instead of kicking each other down instead of picking us up and attaining all we can, one person should not have more options than the next. Many adventitiously blind people have more resources because they were part of the mainstream. My friend Caryn became blind in about sixth grade, and it meant a change in her life. She is a Braille expert, and attained heR doctorate at 28. I even wrote a song about this and three situations. Maybe, I'll put it on here. Thanks. Those of us who are congenitally blind are much more isolated and do not have the networks and mentors and skills that some, not all, adventitiously blind people have buiilt up. Many blind people lose their spouses or friends, because people shy away from them, and are afraid of them. Koraling Lynne

Young Reflections and Recollections

I went to nursery school, but not kindergarten. I went to to the Jewish Guild for the Blind Nursery school. Hmm. I went to P.S. 179 Junior High 194 Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood Queens, New York. Junior High School 194 was in Whitestone. I cannot remember what part of the borough P.S. 179 was. Hmm. Was it in Fresh Meadows? Anyway, I had autograph books, and friends in the neighborhood, etc. I got my first records were the Marvelettes "Please Mr. Postman" which the Beatles covered later. Lee Dorsey was the other record I got as a 45 RPM (revolutions per minute) which were the first records (not any more even used, nor 33 RPM with the folk records and Beatles' records, Hermans's Hermits, etc. My friend Sylvia was impressed that I went to Leonard Bernstein Young People's Concerts when I was 13 because I wrote about it in my diary. I don't have that stuff any more, I don't think. Anyway, I read "All-of-a Kind family" and "Cheaper by the Dozen" I think my cousin Susan read that to me as well as William Saroyan maybe not spelled right. I remember that girls were reading Nancy Drew and candy striper books, and the Beatles had our excitement when we were teens. "Star Trek," "Time Tunnel" "The Smother's Brothers" "Car 54 where are you" and "That Was the Week That Was" well, enough for no. Koraling Lynne

fFalse Idols

I am an idealist and have ideas. I've been talking too people who feel "beaten down" who have no regard for themselves, and I passionately want to coach them in skills of loving themselves, but seeing that they are smart, caring, skilled and versatile. If we accomplish something and are out-going and out-spoken, we are told, as I have been that I am militant, selfish, pushy, stubborn, etc. If we are passive, grateful, polite, lady-like, and conform, then we get a false identity and get rewarded financially and emotionally. What we need as disabled and poor people to not be siloed and to be mentored, have connections, and learn from each other. We get told that we have to be "independent, that we haven't learned how to navigate the system, we're not good enough, or haven't tried hard enough, and some of us make people feel uncomfortable if we tell them what could be improved in the system. We are told if we only dressed better, looked better, were not so narcissistic, or psychologically damaged, (it must be us) and it's us not the system. This has to be turned on its head. We say what we think, and not a stepping stool or tool fofr someone else's gain and each prop up the other to say that their dog guide school or rehabilitation system works, because, after all, there are always exceptions to the rule. I cannot be a puppet, and think that certain rules are important, but not arbitrary ones. When someone who specifically looks good because they are adventitiously blind, (blinded later in life) and have skills and an education, they are paraded out as the superhero, and there must be villains, the activists and advocates who challenge the status quo and the system. The stereotypes of blind people as passive, and being inspiring and courageous fits with thw two people who have been poster children for a state agency and people cry and help them, and don't help others. This is a toxic, dysfunctional way to treat blind people. This is the blind "haves" and "have nots." The others can fail on their own, and fall on their faces. Even blind organizations prop some up and use arrogance and judgment to cement their own power. I have talked to people about being passed over by even blind organizations. for what purposes are people being beaten down? If you have no money, you won't fight the system. After all, if you have nothing, it is your fault. Addiction can feed and fuel perhaps the isolation and the projection and reaction formation about others not being as good. It feeds into being separate from other people. Many competitive and hierarchical systems separate people and use rumors and informal communications to cause people to mistrust themselves and others, and thereby not making the necessary connections to network and build on their skills and self-esteem. Connection, trust and trial and error and being given chances help us seccceed. Success breed success, someone said that. The people at the top and agencies and organizations need to hold on to their power. I believe in sharing information and building people up, not tearing them out and down. Is Facebook a substitute for intimacy? Is there real caring? What have we lost with our mobile society? Is it really a cut-throate society? I hope not. I want to create a workshop that lifts the veil from these perceived truisms. All of us have inherent value, and many keep believing we need to prove ourselves, and that is due to not feeling good enough, and that we are "worthless" and should not be here, and we have no intrinsic value. I have spoken to women and poor people who are disabled or not, and how they have been treated, and no system is there for them to grow, thrive, and fly and think of themselves as exquisite flowers ready to open and bloom. I wnt to help people not just be the "exceptions" but the "acceptions" those who are not damaged emotionaly and financially, but have been able to forge building themselves into the fabric of the United States. Don't we have a right to upward mobility? To love, connections, happiness, mentors? Thanks for listening. I'd welcome your comments. I am not scary, but I am out-going, out-spoken, intense, passionate, and compassionate. I love to network, communicate, ask questions, and have many of us solve these complex problems. I cannot help the individual unless the corporations, agencies, and organizations change their stereotypes and biases. Koraling Lynne

Harshness

I went to a photoshoot this morning and a movie last night. I'm trying to get myself out there. I met a Leslie Yamamoto and Allison last night, and Leslie is a social worker and used to be part of the Governor's Council. I gave them cards of mine. Someone said today that Alaska was harsh, and she drove me home, and was part of the company that was marketing the promotional material for the Mental Health Board, I think. Yes, it is harsh, but can it be tamed? Or does it make those who live here much more harsh ourselves to adapt to this harsh environment? I thought of wanting to have an advocacy awareness program and also partner with other advocates to stratigize how to not frighten people, because it seems to scare some folks. Anchorage is beautiful today and in the high 50's. I want to learn how we can solve the problems of people being so arrogant and being self-promoters instead of using themselves to help others and use their experience as a way to help others. It seems as if everyone needs an enemy, instead of trying to cooperate. We think there is scarcity, and run over others, instead of sharing with others. I want to use this blog to share and help with others, and to have fre-flowing conversations. It is not just about me, though I like win-win situations. I did not hink of this blog as a way to learn about myself and make decisions, but I think it will be that vehicle. I hope people will learn about me, also. Koraling Lynne

Curiosity never Killed Any Cats

I have always asked questions. How would I understand the world if I did not do that? I could not know everything? From the switchboard when mom took me to the Jewish Guild for the Blind when I was about six, I wanted to touch and work with everything. I said I loved gadgets. Sometime afterwards, when I was reading the Arabian Knights, I think that was when I received my first Braille watch. I had seen someone with a watch with musical tones ether at the Lighthouse (New York Association of the Blind) or the Jewish Guild for the Blind, I wanted it. But now, I cannot wear a quartz watch. After a month ortwo, it stops working. Am I that powerful? It is something with polarities or my higher consciousness or electrical system that causes some interference. Hmm. Koraling Lynne

learning about myself and others and you

I learn taht I am more cautious than indulgent or do things with abandon, that I am afraid that people will be angry, so don't engage as much, that even little assurances have me being so grateful and about how Jeannine, who will be my roommate in Portland, who has health problems too, said if no one steps up to the plate, then she will and that was so beautiful. I am tired of the bickering, labeling, rigidity, and just want to work on futuristic stuff, and there is always something we will agree on, even on its face we will not. We must find those intersecting and connecting dots, because All is One, and as I said, we can even if I agree with someone, find those areas where they are surprised about what i don't agree with. I could never get an abortion, even though my parents thought I should out of fear, I believe, thta they would have to take care of the baby, or that I couldn't, or perhaps worry that I could not take care of a baby, and I love them to death, but wanted that baby. Was that the right choice? It was mine to make. When so many disabled babies are aborted, how could I do that? When I heard someone implore: "Not one more baby." I cried because it was so poignant,and what if I were not alive? I think that Senator John Coghill is one of the nicest people ever, and don't care about his politics. When he cared about me a couple of years ago, as I was the first blind person to work in the legislature, that meant so much to me when he had me come up to his office to support me! Senator Kevin Meyer has my respect and caring, again, because he is a nice person. Yet, in high school, Mrs. or Miss Bruno was an atheist and a Democrat, but not a very nice person, and the labels we wear and the tags we put on people, and those things we espouse, get over it. We are so much more than that. I take people for what they are, not only their beliefs. I believe we should legalize drugs, because we have double standards if we don't and crime would be diminished. There are many reasons and I haven't looked at the site, but 25reasons.org is a site that gives arguments for it. Some issues are not about Democrats and Republicans at all. Disabilities issues are not either way, either. Most humans do not understand our skills and what we have to share and are afraid of disabled people. Did you know that even more than AIDS and cancer, people fear being blind, and that is the worst thing they believe could happen to them? My goodness, is that weird. I always considered myself lucky, because I know there are people who feltI would rub off on them, and that I was contagious, so I have the best people around me for friends, because they did not allow their perceptions or fears to guide their decisions. So many people, especially middle-class Protestants have been indoctrinated into being conformists. I am lucky, because I always felt different, if not special, and that I could change things for the better. I care so much about people, and yet I said at a staff meeting that if I was not working at a non-profit, then I would be making five times as much money as I was there, not their fault, and people did make decisions to be there, but many of us take what we get, or blieve we should take what we get., and be grateful for the crumbs we get. No, no, a bountiful diet and not a sparse one, and yes, yes, I love people. I have had so many setbacks and disappointments, and then I pick myself up again. I have been disappointed with people, and then I need to learn to trust and surrender my grief and tears and anger and fear which is my constitutional way of thinking. That is from being a Jewish, middle-class woman growing up, but notnow, when the world is so out of balance financially, emotionally, physicall and mentally. So much suppression and repression and violence. I'm for respect, dignity, freedom, self-determination, flexibility, egalitarian, and love, and forgiveness. We all have our struggles, pain, and it's how we deal with that, and how we grow from it, and we cannot carry our resentments with us like a big trunk, or it wears on us, and brings us down. I believe things are changing in the world for the better, as young people under 30, as the rest of us are "over the hill" and we must leave it to my son and his compatriots. Koraling Lynne

I think this is it for now

It's time to do other things besides blogging and looking at other blogs. Nevertheless, Mr. Armstrong's blog is very good writing. He is not writing nearly every day as I am, but he works and is a busy young person. I wonder if he still considers me a role model, or someone who came before that he can look up to. I don't know. We are from different generations. Hs is visually impaired, and I am blind. That is very different. I have not always felt that we drink from the same trough.

Commenting on Dave Armstrong's blog

I hate to think I am a prude. But at camps, recreational events, and so forth, i was called a flirt, if I hugged a teen-ager when I was one myself. I was not "coming on" to them and was just hugging them. I was always enthusiastic. After all, even in junior hhigh, in a back room we called the "inner sanctum" (I think it was junior high, and not high school) in that place, a guy would want to do things I did not like. I was pretty repressed and naive about sex, and it scared me. It must ave been that I was terrified of being pregnant. When I was, and just thought I would or could not pregnant that fast, but nearly right after I had sexual relations for the first time in about March of 1974, and this was after Europe, where we went together, but managed to not have those kind f relations, I became pregnant very quickly, and would not, and could not get an abortion. I feel very strongly about this, and I loved being pregnant and having a baby.
Dave Armstrong's blog got me thinking, because I never liked parties, or getting drunk, even, and the one time I did when I think my parents' friend's son David came, I felt so stupid, and someone taped me and my voice was slurred, and that was the end of it. I went to parties of blind kids, don't get me wrong, but I was not a drinker, because I did not like the way people acted. I never wanted to be out of control. That is probably why I was so repressed. Even before AIDS, I was never that wild about sex. Yes, having friends and being close, I was so emotional about friends, but sex did not thrill me. That is probably why I ended up in therapy--sex therapy--and that was very embarrassing. I remembering taking the train to middle Manhattan with a woman and two men, I believe, for maybe a month or two, but we had "homework" or exercises, and I just never liked talking about it. My parents never spoke about it, so it was hush-hush, as far as I could see. I was very self-conscious about it. I remember in ninth grade, Jill asked me if I knew why my parents slept together and I did not. I don't want this blog to be X-rated, but blind kids don't get models or get to learn about sex because we don't look at magazines at the newsstands and such. We blind kids had many questions, and no one to answer them. We were curious. So, I have a sense of adventure, but it only goes so far. I like new experiences, but not self-destruction ones. I am more about self-deprivation and shutting myself off than that interested in hurting my body in any way. So, what can I say? I was pretty strait-laced, though many would not think so. People look at the outward signs, such as not getting married, and being a fiminist for many years, and they would not believe it, but in many ways, I am pretty conservative. That is why I hate to label people. I do have progressive views about many things, but I did not like being out of control, even though i can be intense and passionate. I can be very enthusiastic. I spent a lot of time reading books as a youngster, and I loved books about young girls or "Pippi Longstocking" or "Assorted Sisters" or "Hitty, her First Hundered Years" about a doll, and had a very vivid imagination. I loved to roller-skate also. That's enough for now. Dave's posts kind of shocked me. I could never be that wreckless, and girls never would have had that happen. My parents were worried about me going to Europe for a whopping $223 or something like that when I was 21. It was wonderful, though, and not something I could take back. KoralingLynne

Time and Motion

Which is the determining factor--speed or efficiency? I remember a person who works with blind people who said that blind people were not faster on the computer, thereby hampering them. Time and motion studies and the scientific method were practices that employers or companies used in the early 20th century, and did not bring to fore people's job satisfaction. I learned about this in both my master's degree programs. It was a way to enforce conformity. So, how we treat people and our health seem to be very important. People care about children, or aging parents, and used to be called the "sandwich generation" because there were parents or adults who had to take care of aging parents and children. So, speed and timing people, and punching time clocks is monotonous, and not the way I've wanted to be. If you have a great job, and my program analyst and legislative intern job were great, it might be pallatable. We are not stiff, but we are malleable and chameleons. So, speed (though I do get impatient sometimes but not as much as I used to) causes much stress, though deadlines are necessary, and tasks must be set out.

Reminiscences

I tried to post this on dimworld1.blogsppot.com but Dave Armstonr, to whom that blogger account belongs, has a word verification which is not accessible. I was commenting on a post I saw on a very cursory level. It mentioned the Netherlands. I love the Netherlands. Boy would i love to go back there and have the foods, sights, people, experiences. I went to a dog guide school where they only use female mixed breeds as guides, and people are there for two weeks. It was a haunting experience to be at the Anne Frank house, where I had to turn feet sideways to get down those stairs. I wrote the tram with my boyfriend, and you had to practically catch and hang on to the metal rings or whatever they were called. But, that was when I saw accessible money for the first time and the gilder notes were all marked at that time in 1973, and we stayed in a youth hostel, and not just that, listened to Radio Free Radio and Voice of America with a "Norelco" but there it was Phillips radio we bought, and it was during the Watergate hearings with President Nixon. I loved the people, and we had a backpack which impeded our hearing when we were walking with our canes, but we had not counted on that. I kept an expense sheet as that was the first time I had been abroad by myself. We went to France and England on that trip also. I had a real sense of destruction and emptiness because of the war, (World War II) and it was so interesting to hear Europeans' views of Americans during the hearings we were listening to on the radio. We traveled with traveler's checks. I wish I traveled more, but we had a son a year later, and my life changed. I will never forget that trip. It's nothing like armchair adventures. Koraling Lynne

May 5, 2011 3:11 PM

Know thyself?

Interesting post by the Association for Psychological Science about whether we know ourselves best. Some of us who are narcissistic like ourselves way too much but it is probably a reaction formation of some sort. Ray Harris on the "school" and research site Higher balance forum sent this: Who knows you best? Not you, say psychologists
Written by Ray Harris
Thursday, 05 May 2011 22:24
Know thyself. That was Socrates' advice, and it squares with conventional wisdom. "It's a natural tendency to think we know ourselves better than others do," says Washington University in St. Louis assistant professor Simine Vazire.

But a new article by Vazire and her colleague Erika N. Carlson reviews the research and suggests an addendum to the philosopher's edict: Ask a friend. "There are aspects of personality that others know about us that we don't know ourselves, and vice-versa," says Vazire. "To get a complete picture of a personality, you need both perspectives." The paper is published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. That certainly provides a twist, Lynne says, doesn't it? We want to think of that but the Joharri Window says views are within four quandrants, if I remember correctly, things you know that you know things that others know about you that you don't know, and I forget the rest. I'll have to look it up. We are an imperfect work in progress, but doing the best we can also. Some people have been so damaged, though, that they need extensive work to get themselves back. Koraling Lynne

More from the article:It's not that we know nothing about ourselves. But our understanding is obstructed by blind spots, created by our wishes, fears, and unconscious motives—the greatest of which is the need to maintain a high (or if we're neurotic, low) self-image, research shows. Even watching ourselves on videotape does not substantially alter our perceptions—whereas others observing the same tape easily point out traits we're unaware of.

Not surprisingly, our intimates and those who spend the most time with us know us best. But even strangers have myriad cues to who we are: clothes, musical preferences, or Facebook postings. At the same time, our nearest and dearest have reasons to distort their views. After all, a boorish spouse or bullying child says something to the other spouse or parent. "We used to collect ratings from parents – and we've mostly stopped, because they're useless," notes Vazire. What such data would show: Everyone's own child is brilliant, beautiful, and charming.

Interestingly, people don't see the same things about themselves as others see. Anxiety-related traits, such as stage fright, are obvious to us, but not always to others. On the other hand, creativity, intelligence, or rudeness is often best perceived by others. That's not just because they manifest themselves publicly, but also because they carry a value judgment—something that tends to affect self-judgment. But the world is not always the harsher critic. Others tend to give us higher marks for our strengths than we credit ourselves with.

Why doesn't all this information add up to better personal and mutual understanding? People are complex, social cues are many, perceptions of others are clouded by our own needs and biases, studies show. Plus, the information isn't easy to access. "It's amazing how hard it is to get direct feedback," Vazire notes, adding that she isn't advocating brutal frankness at any cost. There are good reasons for reticence.

The challenge, then, is to use such knowledge for the good. "How can we give people feedback, and how can that be used to improve self-knowledge?" Vazire asks. "And how do we use self-knowledge to help people be happier and have better relationships?"

The first answer to these questions may be the most obvious, but not the easiest to practice: Listen to others. They may know more than you do—even about yourself.

Provided by Association for Psychological Science (Koraling Lynne

Other Preferences

Rigid people who cannot see others' view, (which is why cars have a rear view mirror) are more of the Type A personality. They have accidents, because they only see things one way such as in front of them, and don't like to the side or in back of them. I probably have Type A, but I try to listen to and repeat to make sure I understand, which is reflective listening, I think, and using "I" statements is a good idea. People who are rigid and cannot look around them, and don't want to travel outside of their little town are missing out on so much in this world. There is so much good by sharing with other cultures, and other places around the world. We don't have to impose our system of beliefs and our culture on other people or nations. No system of government is perfect. It is so odd that lies become truth, and truth becomes lies. The control freaks, instead of those of us who want openness are trying to force their ideas down our throats. I gag on that, which is why I had a button in the 1980's "Question Authority" which is a problem, because I have been a leader. I have not always been comfortable with that, because I like egalitarianism, but I realize that a certain structure must be adhered to or adhesived. You see, there have to be rules, though flexible, so that there is some order. But chaos theory, (I read Phyllis Wheatley in school for public administration) and Gwen Kennedy in Leadership Anchorage, a program of the Alaska Humanities Forum, talk about chaos theory and that people and situations are not predictable. There is no blank space, physicists say=, and therefore it is filled up with particles, some say. Notions about what makes for a "good society" keep shifting and turning on its axis, and that isa good thing. After all, I learned taht we hadnine planets, and taht the brain was immutable. These have altered and been updated. So, take everything with a grain of salt. I do know that we must have better solutions for the complex problems we face. Being "cops of the world" as Phil Ochs said, and bombing every country to plunder their resources, to censor what you don't like, to not have conversations with people you don't agree with--these are a recipe for disaster. Koraling Lynne

Jet Lag

This is from Dan, another person who posted on the Higher Balance forum I look for new research and information on concerning the mind, technology, and burgeoning topics to enhance oneself and help the universes. Koraling Lynne The easiest way to avoid jet lag is to take your shoes off and ground yourself to the earth for about 20 minutes when you get off the plane. If you can't do that you can touch a tree. This is not just metaphysical. Your body actually looks for signals from the earth several times an hour in order to synchronize with it. It's like how your computer synchronizes with the atomic clock. Your body wants to readjust its circadian rhythms and gather free electrons(anti-oxidants) from the earth at all times. This is a burgeoning field of medicine. Look up Barefoot Grounding for more info.

How can we work together

IfI have information, I try to share it. I think providing information so that people can make wiser choices, or improve what they are doing is good. However, so many people get defensive (which was a habitual way I have acted on too many occassions) and don't really know how to listen. Many people in my life say taht I am good at listening. Hearing is different than listening. You can hear something, but are you really listening to the nuances in people's speech, the pauses, the downward way they have their head so their voice sounds muffled, the way they turn away and avert their eyes, etc. People pause in different places, or speak louder or softer, or have a tremor, all these things you do not need sight for. I can usually tell things about people, because I have had to be an astute observer and study people's behavior. I see many times going behind the gruffness to a softer side, and why certain people may act pretentious and passive and phony. It is out of fear in both interests. So many people get angry, because they have been disappointed with people. If I help someone, I cannot expect something back. I have to give out of love and admiration, and because I have a basic faith in human nature. (Sigh). So, keep checking out my site. If you know of any other Alaskan blind woman with a blog, let me know. Koraling Lynne Koraling Genius Consultants. We must work with others, because there are so many smart people in the world who have so much to share.

Accessizing

Accessizing is what I call the muscle to include everyone to raise up all our dreams and hopes. I don't want to tell you about myself, provide workshops and web accessibility consulting or recommendations just for my own benefit, but provide services for other people. The workshop provided by the Center for Human Development www.alaskachd.org provides this research networking class on marketing thorugh a five-year grant for folks with disabilities and funded by the Small Business Administration. That is wonderful. More people should know about thisI attended by linking to a webinar. One of the difficulties with web conferencing software is that the buttons were not labelled with ILinc . but they are less expensive and more responsive than perhaps some other companies. None of the chat features in any web conferencing seems to be navigable. This might be because of the dynamic way pages are laid out now, and refreshing and buffering, and the buffer does not hold many messages. It does seem to have a chat log, so there may be hope. The good thing is they do use keystrokes. Many companies are not inaccessible on purpose; they just don't knowhow to cater to the millions of disabled folks who could make use of their websites. (Sigh). Thanks for reading. Please, keep those comments coming. This blog is awfully silent so far. Koraling Lynne

Paper Computers for smart Phones and Tablets

I just heard a new note about a paper comuter that one can bend to hear songs, call a phone number and do different things. I don't know if it is accessible, but how remarkable that is! I have always loved gadgets since I was a little girl. If I could push a button, or hear something new, or even learn about a switch board, I wanted gadgets and loved gadgets of every kind. I have always been curious about things. I have always wanted to know why things worked the way they were working, not that they did work, or reporting on the obvious "here and now" and always wanted to learn and know about the future. From the website of humanmedialad it says: Snaplet is a wrist worn thin-film wearable paper computer based on a 3.7" flexible electrophoretic (E Ink) display. It features touch sensors for navigating applications, and bend sensors that allow Snaplet to determine its current functionality depending on its shape. Phone calls can be made by removing the wrist band, and curving the screen. Calls are dropped by popping the display. Snaplet also features a flexible wacom pen tablet that allows users to write on it as if it were a piece of interactive paper. YouTube - humanmedialab's Channel is where this was taken from. Keep an open mind, everybody. Everything is changing, including us. I have changed much in my life, and I'm ready for another big change. I sometimes feel as if I can feel it within me. The more I look at people and situations, the more I have a passion for networking, working with people, and abhor arrogance, bullying, chips on shoulders, (chocolate chips are better, but no more healthier) and back-stabbing. I believe that we effect other people by what we say, how we say it, and what we do. I have recommended "Emotional Intelligence" (by Daniel Goleman) to many people, and we read it in one public administrations class. It is more potent than the "Intelligence Quotient" which is used as a marker for people. However, it has been proven that the Emotional Intelligence tells more about who is more employable etc. So many of us who are disabled from birth are hit with being ignored, leftout, told that we will never be employed, etc. I cry about people having difficult lives, whether they are disabled or not. I always thought I would be doing well at this age, and never counted on the health problems I had, and never gave up, and never worried about finances until the last few years. So, now, I know I have skills and have more confidence, but don't want to use my skills just to build myself up, but to build others up, or their corporations, because that will help me in the end. By providing services to others, that is how everyone will grow and win. So, when I speak about my experiences with visually impaired people, some of my best friends when I was young were visually impaired. One of them, Barbara, became blind, and she had to learn Braille later in life. I believe Braille and large print should be taught, so that children have the best of both worlds. Janis Lasky and I would hang out a lot as children. I just remember the competition, judgments, comparisons, none of which helped us really care about ourselves. I did have great orientation and mobility instructors at the Industrial Home for the blind in New York. Thanks, Mr. Vincent Mail. Koraling Lynne

networking

Everyone needs help and mentors. I was thinking last night do some blind people believe that we have "overcome" disability? I don't think "We shall overcome" that wonderful Civil Rights hymn meant that. Overcoming means overcoming discrimination. We should not mow down other blind people, and prop them up for political gain. I mean, I do believe that things that certain people do is impressive, but we have to level the playing field and realize that there are many unrecognized, unsung heroes as well, and it gets tiring to see one or two people be hoisted up. I believe this speaker was impressive and was a good speaker, and had some good things to say, but some of them disturbed and troubled me. The thing about lessening disability I think this is a misstatement. Truly, what it's about is having confidence and using the disability as an example to help other people, not using your ego to be as powerful as you can be over others, andlord it over others. That is a sad reflection. I know he mentioned that he got to where he is through many others, and none of us can get anywhere by ourselves.
Let's see disabled people as unique, resourceful, giving, sharing, caring, and useful, andnot just think of a couple of people who "make it." Koraling Lynne

Machines

The thing that is the worst for me is to think of people as workhorses, machines, automatons, robots, or mechanical devices. We are breathing, feeling, needing to be self-actualized human beings. I have never felt as if I was quite like other people. What was said by a speaker at the donor appreciation lecture for the Alaska Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired was that (and this is rhetoric to me) that the bigger one's life, the smaller the disability. I agree that confidence is great, and we should all build each other up. It is much easier to put someone down than to build someone up. see so much bullying on one end and fear and pretention on the other. . Either you are hoisted on a pedestal or kicked to the curb if you are disabled. There are the poster children or adults, and they, and only they are the exception to the rule. I once heard Louise Rude say something like we did not want to have to prove ourselves or have to be better than anyone else. We just wnated to be mediocre. Louise Rude helped to initiate AIRRES the Alaska Information Radio Reading and Education Service. She was also, arguably, the first Director of the first Independent Living Center, but was not happy about the bureaucracy and politics, I have heard. Louise Rude died of cancer in March, 1993. The Alaska Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired was a concept that was initiated by Sandy Sanderson and Louise Rude. Their website is www.alaskabvi.org. So, why we view ourselves may be different but the stereotype of us being courageous or amazing, I have discussed before. Koraling Lynne

Hierarchy

When I was a young girl, it seemed that those who were visually impaired had a status that blind people did not have. They were given more responsibilities, and could use their perceived or appointed "power" even as teen-agers to "torment" us. There should not be a hierarchy, but many visually impaired people like to "pass" and can "pass" as sighted people, for a while. However, many people who are visually impaired eventually lose a good portion of their sight, and still have to go through a grief process and finally accept whatever they are given. Many visually impaired or low-vision people do not learn Braille, and they probably should not learn it, since they will not use it. They should use whatever sight they possess to navigate and use their cane (usually a white folding cane) for identification but not for interacting with the physical environment. Of course, what is most troubling is the emotional/psychological problems are much, much worse than one would imagine even the physical scars. These leave invisible scars, and when they occur over and over again, it ads to the depression and isolation of blind people. Koraling Lynne

How to put a Stake through Apathy

If there is apathy, it is because people feel helpless and powerless, and are not given the access to the "seats of power" and power and greed have been institutionalized. We could be bringing people in to help solve problems in the community, and then new solutions can be thought out.

Catching up

Well, I've been off the blog for a couple of days. Just trying to do what I can do. I heard something yesterday, I think about apathy and that apathy is caused by people not realizing that people can get involved in governments from the grass roots. Would it be nice if we all respected each other, and helped each other get involved? The www.ted.com site has many talks and this one about the myth of apathy was intriguing. I again saw this on the site for my higher consciousness. It is at www.hbinavigators.com but www.higherbalance.com is a free one that you can view some free videos, and some are also on youtube. As I try to figure out what I could be doing, I think I want to do so many things. My son's father sent me a proposal that is interesting about a housing unit which would help seniors,, disabled and low-income people. Other people think I should be doing other things. I also want to get involved in a coalition of pedestrians who are trying to bring attention to pedestrian injuries and deaths. I have to see about that tomorrow, maybe. If we form coalitions, it can help far more people. Koraling Lynne