[nfb-talk] New THOUGHT PROVOKER #154- White Canes and Windmills

Tue Feb 16 00:59:22 UTC 2010

I began in the seventies spreading the idea that we needed to see our canes
as something more than utilitarian travel items.  Most of us began our
blindness challenge by hating the cane and although we do come to embrace
it's freedoms we still don't really, really, like the darn thing.  
I have felt that we will know that we are changing what it means to be blind
when we appropriate the cane as not just a tool but a dress item.  Elegant
canes?  Canes with textured leather handles? I myself can't imagine all the
cool things we could do with our canes but I think it's telling that we
haven't.  We haven't because, at a pretty fundamental level, we still don't
embrace them.
Some of this is historical.  When we began to use canes, they were primarily
seen by the public as a gentleman's dress item.  We wanted to change that
image and so avoided any ornateness.  Now, we need to move back toward a
nice dressitem with a utilitarian function.
Mike Bullis
Baltimore Maryland

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Robert Leslie Newman
Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 6:56 PM
To: nfbtalk
Subject: [nfb-talk] New THOUGHT PROVOKER #154- White Canes and Windmills

NFBTalk 

RE: White Canes and Windmills 

The new THOUGHT PROVOKER is all about blind youth and accepting a travel
tool, the long white cane and dealing with the pressure of peer
reaction/acceptance. If you have not read the PROVOKER, it follows.  Recall
that I collect responses and post them upon my web site for all the WWW to
read and learn from and that URL is-  <http://thoughtprovoker.info/>
Http://thoughtprovoker.info  If you wish to receive THOUGHT PROVOKERS sent
directly to you, just write me and ask, at-  newmanrl at cox.net 

THOUGHT PROVOKER 154

White Canes and Windmills

In his bedroom, Danny picked up his long white cane, his first. Its weight
was easy to handle. Holding it up and straight out before him, he gave it a
tentative sword-like, back-and-forth swish. This would be his first day
using it at school and he couldn't kid himself, he was nervous about how
people would react to him.

"Danny," his mother called up to him from downstairs. "Come down. You need
to start walking to school, son." 

"Sixty seconds, Mom." Lowering the cane, positioning it at center, Danny
tapped it left to right in the two-point touch method he had been taught.
"Wonder what the girls will think?" Danny looked inward and began to
fantasize.

It was a warm day. It was after school and he was walking home, using his
new cane. At Maple and Main, the usual group of snooty girls was gathered,
visiting. Danny knew they saw him coming; his stride was confident,
shoulders back, head up, swinging in a steady rhythm, arching his cane, not
staring down at shuffling feet like before. He was truckin'!

DING-DING, the ice-cream truck drove by. 

"Oh, stop, stop!" Cried all the girls, but the truck kept on rolling down
the street.

"I'll stop him!" In his dream, Danny leaps forward; cane flashing; he
sprints down the walk; catches up with the truck; reaches out and taps the
windshield with his cane tip; the truck stops.

"Danny." his mother calls again. 

"Yes Mom, just 40 seconds." Feeling excited about what he might be able to
use his cane for, Danny lifts it up, this time in the on-guard sword
position. In his fantasy he is now on the neighborhood playground, walking
with his cane and . . .

"Hey Squint, where's your magnifying glasses and what's that wimpy stick?"
The blunt end of a baseball bat poked into Danny's stomach, punctuating the
bully's last word.

Danny jumps back, whirls a three-sixty and with the tip of his cane flicks
the bully's baseball hat off his head. 

"Hey!" Taken by surprise, the bully retaliates, swinging the bat. 

The WHOOSH of the oncoming danger cues Danny to step back and the bat swings
by harmlessly. Countering with his trusty cane, Danny steps forward and
spanks the bully sharply on the seat of his pants.

"OUCH! Grrr, I'll get you for that!" Bat pulled back for another swing, the
bully leaps forward.

Danny jumps onto a lower rung of a set of climbing bars; the bully swings
again; Danny sidesteps; RING the bat strikes the bars; the bat brakes; the
bully yells with the pain of the splintering wood in his hands; Danny
thrusts out, inserting the dirty tip of his cane into the bully's open
mouth. 

"Danny?" His mother's voice brings him back. "Are you coming?"

"Twenty seconds, Mom." Danny's pumped, his thoughts are racing, seeing great
potential for him and his new cane; maybe even school-wide fame. . .

The scene is the crowded school's playground. He visualizes the towering
structures of the wind turbines lining the edge of the school's property.
This was recess and the kids were doing what they've done since the
windmills were built--they watched the whirling propellers, boasting on what
they'd do if they could climb the towers. 

Walking out in front of all the gathered students, Danny snaps on a hook to
the tip-end of his cane; he jumps skyward; he hooks a blade as it swings
down; he is lifted up and rides around waving to the astonishment and
admiration of all. 

"Danny, you need to come down, now!"

"Yes, Mom." New cane in hand, Danny speeds downstairs, ready to tackle the
day.

Robert Leslie Newman
Author of THOUGHT PROVOKER
http://www.thoughtprovoker.info <http://www.thoughtprovoker.info/> 
Thought Is The First Step To Beyond

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