Episodes
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#20 – A BLIND CHILD AND AN OPEN CAN OF OIL BASED PAINT
Well, I was only six. I had not then, nor have I yet, reached visual, artistic notoriety. Given the experience you're about to hear, I dare say, I never will. There were many things in our basement that give ample proof of that. Of course, none of them were mine or my sister Linda's toys. Just...
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#19 – THE GIANT
Episode Notes My transition from undergraduate school to graduate school was one of the most educational and also frightening experiences I had up to that point in my life. It wasn't so much the transition as much as it was the events that took place during that transition. Podcast gurus suggest...
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#18 – I SPENT 2 YEARS AS ONE OF HIS STUDENTS
Dr. Paul Richardson. You gently reached inside my mind and heart and helped me understand how I would relate to people for the rest of my life. Your classes in Sociology gave me reason to ponder what I might do to help reduce tension between people with very different ideas about how they need...
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#17 – STILL IN COLLEGE
Episode Notes I was in college long before we had some of the technology we have today. My days were often long and filled with tasks that seem almost impossible to complete. It often took me much longer to finish what I needed to do than it took my sighted colleagues. Even now, I still use many…
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#16 – FAILURE WAS A REAL POSSIBILITY
There aren't any show notes for this episode. You'll be like I was, totally unprepared for what comes. But, change can still happen, even when things are hard. Your comments are very welcome. Find out more at https://stories-that-change-our-lives.pinecast.co
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#15 – TO JEANINE, MY MOST AMAZING, MAGICAL CHILDHOOD FRIEND
How can one small 13-year-old be full of so much wisdom, compassion, curiosity, radiance, and love? Her name was Jeanine. Her time on this earth was so very short, but she left it, and all who knew her, in a better place because she lived among us. Because of our friendship, I am still, and…
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#14 – "HELP" IS A TWO WAY STREET
When I was growing up, the absence of today's technology made it necessary for me to be more dependent on other people for many things. That gave me an insight into dependence that I never expected to discover. In short, many of my friends and acquaintances had similar problems, and they were not...
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#13 – COLLEGE TWO
When I enrolled in college, I was studying to be a minister. This is the story of that journey and how a very special gift of love gave me the freedom to think more open-mindedly about the very narrow path I was on. That gift also allowed me to respect the varied paths taken by others that caused...
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#12 – COLLEGE ONE
Here are some stories about my early college experience as the only blind student on campus. This was quite a jump from my life at the school for the blind. Given my fear of what I might find at a very good undergraduate college, was this a jump from the frying pan into the fire? It's also a…
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MY YEARS AT THE VIRGINIA SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND
My parents knew that no school in our area could teach a child who was blind. They also knew they couldn't educate me themselves. So, they had to do the unthinkable. They had to send me away to school before I turned 5 years old. For me, spending my first 4 years as an only child, and then…
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#10 – HOW DID I DISCOVER I WAS BLIND?
As a very young child, you can only know your own condition. If you can't see, you don't quickly grasp the fact that others have something you don't have. It's even harder if you have light perception, because then people tell you that you can see. But, can you? This is the complicated story…
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#9 – ONLY THE TREE CAN SAY
In this story, my grandfather and I walk through my grandparents' apple orchard. In part, this is a sound painting of events that took place in the orchard each time I was there. People say that a picture is worth a thousand words. How many words does it take to describe a special sound, a…
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#8 – THE DAY THAT SOUND BECAME MAGIC
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...
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#7 – HOW A SIMPLE GAME CHANGED MY LIFE
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…
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#6 – INVESTIGATING AN OLD ABANDONED WELL
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...
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#5 – HOW FISHING CHANGED MY LIFE: Part II
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...
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#4 – HOW FISHING CHANGED MY LIFE: Part I
Episode Notes How does a 6 year old blind child safely walk almost any place he wishes before he learns to use a cane? How would you do it if you were somehow prevented from seeing the ground in front of you? How would you know what your foot would land on next? What if it's a flight of steps? It...
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#3 – Have you Ever Felt an Alligator?
If you have ever tried to explain what something you can see might look like in the mind of a person who was born without sight, you have likely happened on an experience that taxes your knowledge of whatever language you speak. Visual objects can be much more easily described. Other people who…
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#2 – Crossing the Road
Episode Notes At the age of six, my father taught me to cross the road that went in front of our house. Little did I know then that there were so many roads, so much traffic, so many city block angles, and other things that would tax my hearing, power of discovery, and my wits. It is many years...
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#1 – Using Echo Location to Find my Way
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…
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