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

Tue Feb 16 01:08:07 UTC 2010

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> Original Message:
> ---------------------------------
> 
> From: Mike Bullis <mabullis at hotmail.com> 
> Sent: February 15, 2010 7:59:22 PM
> To: newmanrl at cox.net, 'NFB Talk Mailing List' <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] New THOUGHT PROVOKER #154- White Canes and Windmills
> 
> 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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> 
> 
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