[Ag-eq] AMEN TO THAT!

[Jody W. Ianuzzi]

Hello Peg, Ryan and all,

Oh how refreshing to hear I am not the only blind person who grew up daring 
to do the things everyone else did.

I like to think that I just used voluntary deafness to ignore everyone who 
said I couldn't or shouldn't do something.  My attitude was and still is 'oh 
yeah, just watch me'.

This all reminds me of the story of the kids in gym class.  They were all 
climbing ropes up to the gym ceiling.  As they climbed they wer warned to be 
careful, don't fall etc.  One by one the children abandoned their climb and 
slid back down to the floor.  all but one child who just kept on climbing 
until he reached the ceiling and touched it before sliding back down. 
Everyone was amazed and the child was congratulated.  he had to look at them 
to read their lps because he was deaf.  he never heard the warnings, he just 
did what was natural.

When I was a kid I was just expected to do everything every other kid did. 
On one hand this was clueless because I never learned to cross the street 
using blindness skills etc.  I have never had any formal training in 
blindness skills, I have just figured necessity was the mother of invention. 
I came up with my own adaptations and they all worked.

Ryan, as for all those traditional values, that is why I wear a cowboy hat 
every where I go.  I have a terrible problem with glare and I wore baseball 
hats all the time.  Then one day I was working in the garden and I got a 
really bad burn on my neck.  I thought of how that problem had been solved 
before and the cowboy hat came to mind.  I live in south Florida where it is 
a good idea to keep the sun off all year long.  I ride horses and I believe 
the strength of our country came from the traditional self reliance born by 
the old western settlers.

I asked my husband if I drew attention myself wearing my hat all the time 
and he just laughed and said, no you draw attention to yourself walking 
every where with an 80 pound German Sepherd.

Maybe it is my personality that has always bucked the system or maybe it is 
just not being afraid of being different but I love my hat collection. 
<GRIN>  Not to mention they keep the rain off my head.  hahaha

At least we had a chance, I am really concerned for the kis who get worn 
down by all the hysterical limitations in school now.  Kids not allowed to 
run and kids in high school who need an aide on the bus or kids who feel 
they really can't do anything without help.  They are damned if they do and 
damned if they don't.  If they balk at the restrictions they get in trouble 
for defying authority.  If they go along and comply they loose their souls.

I am so glad I found this list not only because of all the great horse and 
farming stories but because I think we are all like minded or we wouldn't be 
here.

Happy Trails,

JODY


Barrel racers know how to take turns.......

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.
    - Roger Caras

_____________________________________

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." Thomas Jefferson

"When the people fear the
government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is
liberty" ~ Thomas Jefferson

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be 
the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under 
omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes 
sleep,his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us 
for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the 
approval of their own conscience."
     ~  C. S. LEWIS