[Nfbmt] Monthly Chapter Meeting Announcement - 6:00 p.m. December 8, 2016 - National Federation of the Blind of Montana, Treasure State At-Large Chapter

[Rik James]

Hello,

We are scheduled to have us a meeting soon. Actually, this next Thursday,
December 8th at 6 pm.

 

Who are we? 

We are the Treasure State At-Large chapter of the National Federation of the
Blind of Montana.

I am Rik James, and I convene and moderate the monthly telephone conference.

I serve as President. But that does not make me like an authority figure.

That said, I think it might be nice to have you join us.

Your participation, listening, discussing, and brainstorming. 

All part of making it worthwhile for the existence of our chapter.

So call in and let's have a chapter meeting.

There is a reading Assignment before the meeting.

Below the other information about the phone meeting there is pasted a part
of a blindness related essay for discussion.

To get a full copy of the piece, send me an email and I will send it to you
as an attachment.

Or you can look online for it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/17/opinion/sunday/feeling-my-way-into-blindne
ss.html?_r=0 

 

Now, here are the details to use to call in on Thursday.

Thanks.

 

Date: Thursday, December 8, 2016

Time:  6:00 p.m. (one hour telephone conference) 

All you need to know to join us is this:

The regular monthly meeting occurs each 2nd Thursday at 6:00 p.m.

The phone number, and the Participant Code, it is the same each month.

   (And you can read it below.)

All are welcome. Please tell others they are invited, too!

The topics range from the very simple to the very technical, but always it
is a warm and fuzzy group of friends and colleagues dreaming up new ideas,
and reporting on our individual and shared progress in our lives as part of
the National Federation of the Blind of Montana. 

Also, please visit the NFB of Montana website, which is this. 

 www.nfbmt.org

 

Totally Free Conference number is:

    1 (712) 432-6100

Participant Code:

    41010893 # 

You see, that 8-digit code is what you dial, followed by the pound or number
sign (# or SHIFT + 3).

The pleasant computer voice will ask if this is correct and to press 1 if it
is. And then you are in the room!

 

URL to web page:  

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/17/opinion/sunday/feeling-my-way-into-blindne
ss.html?_r=0

 

Feeling My Way Into Blindness.

By EDWARD HOAGLAND. 

 

Edward Hoagland is a nature and travel writer, and the author, most
recently, of 'In the Country of the Blind,' a novel.

 

 

Blindness is enveloping. It's beyond belief to step outside and see so
little, just a milky haze. Indoors, a smothering dark. It means that you
can't shed a mood of loneliness with a brisk walk down the street because
you might trip, fall and break something. Nor will you see a passing friend,
the sight of whom could be as cheery as an actual conversation. Sights, like
sounds, randomly evoke a surge of memories ordinarily inaccessible that
lighten and brighten the day. 'Who are you? I may already have asked 10
people who have spoken to me. Their body language as well as their smiles
are lost to me. Human nature is striped with ambiguities, and you need to
see them, but like a prisoner, I am hooded.

 

I lost my sight once before, to cataracts, a quarter-century ago, but it was
restored miraculously by surgery. It then went seriously bad again, until,
reaching 80, I needed a cane. Tap, tap. Ambulatory vision is the technical
term..

 

Everything becomes impromptu, hour by hour improvised. Pouring coffee so it
doesn't spill, feeling for the john so you won't pee on the floor, calling
information for a phone number because you can't read the computer, or the
book. Eating takes considerable time since you can't see your food. Feeling
for the scrambled eggs with your fingers, you fret about whether you appear
disgusting. Shopping for necessities requires help. So does traveling on a
bus.

 

The kindness of strangers is proverbial -- a woman leads me through the
bustle of an airport toward the taxi stand, a waitress hands me back a $50
bill I mistook for a 20. Blindness is factually a handicap, yet an
empathetic one, because other people can so easily imagine themselves
suffering from it, sometimes even experiencing a rehearsal for it when
stumbling through a darkened house at night. I remember how in school we
teased students with Coke-bottle glasses, but didn't laugh at blind folk
whose black glasses signified that they couldn't see at all.

 

I know about handicaps harder to cotton to, having stuttered terribly for
decades, my face like a gargoyle's, my mouth flabbering uncontrollably.
Blindness is old hat. In Africa you still see sightless souls led about by
children gripping the other end of a stick. Blindness in its helplessness
reassures the rest of us that that oddball is not an eyesore or a loose
cannon. Being blind is omission, not commission; and you'd better learn how
to fall. Paratrooper or tumbler training would be useful. A tumbler can tip
sideways as he lands so his hip and shoulder absorb the blow.

 

The ears need schooling as a locator. I search for the bathroom at night,
guided by a ticking clock whose location I recognize. As you go blind,
exasperating incongruities arise, but also the convenience of this new
excuse for shedding social obligations not desired. And you can give your
car away.

 

SNIP.  SNIP.   

Read the rest online at the URL above, or you can contact me off list for
the full text @ d28rik at msn.com.

 

########