[Travelandtourism] Fw: My THOUGHT PROVOKER stuff

Thu Oct 20 13:46:43 UTC 2011

Good morning all:

I had been speak to Robert Leslie Newman, President of the Omaha, Nebraska Chapter of the NFB, and the President of the Writers' Division.

I am forwarding a story below, he wrote on his thought provoker website, which has not been updated, he no longer works on it, but it is active for all who would like to read it.

Also, we may have him in Dallas at our meeting about his travel experience.

So, enjoy below. 

Cheryl Echevarria, President
Travel and Tourism Division
National Federation of the Blind 
President at nfb-travel.org<mailto:President at nfb-travel.org>
631-236-5138

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Robert Leslie Newman<mailto:newmanrl at cox.net> 
To: 'cheryl echevarria'<mailto:cherylandmaxx at hotmail.com> 
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2011 9:30 AM
Subject: RE: My THOUGHT PROVOKER stuff

Cheryl

I'd love to come and speak at your meeting.

Talking about travel and my thought provokers, below is one that I wrote about traveling blind-

THOUGHT PROVOKER 96

More to Life Than a Picture

Last Updated November 08, 2005
To Provoke Thought Is The First Step To Beyond

     "The visual impact of the architecture is said to be." our tour guide was lecturing to my group and I could tell by the comments and sounds of my fellow tourists movements, that they were enjoying taking it all in. We were touring the old business district and some of the buildings on this street were the oldest in the city. I could not hear all the words the guide was saying and not being able to see all what he pointed out, I stood back and opened my senses to all else that was around me. There was lots of environmental noise, mostly the traffic. "BEEPBEEP, BEEPBEEP!" Many horn blasts carried sharply over the continuous low rumble of rubber tires rolling over stone cobbles. "BONG, BONG, BONG." The sound of tolling bells came from a distant clock tower. All around us a non-English language was being spoken. Along with the auditory ambience were smells; some sharp and new, some spoke of the old, the decayed. All this told me that I was not at home. This was a foreign land. 

     Later, shoes off, stepping into the cool interior of a mosque, late afternoon sun forgotten, I was struck by the acoustics that can come only with a very large room with towering ceilings. The guide, now in a hushed voice said, "From the raised dais, if a pin is dropped, it can be heard in all corners of the sanctuary." 

     Later, "HMM, smell those spices," one member of my group said as we walked up to where we were to have our evening meal. 

     Inside we again were asked to remove our shoes and were seated at a low table that required us to sit on the floor. There was music being piped in, but we all knew that a belly dancer was to come later. What really was going to make this dining experience different was that the food would be eaten out of communal bowls and you ate with your fingers. 

     Listening around I could hear that the people at the next table over were English speaking, probably tourists like us. 

     "Excuse m," a man from the adjacent table spoke up, touching my arm to get my attention. "I couldn't help but notice your white stick as you came in. You are vision impaired?" 

     "Yes," I said, answering in the same polite vain in which the man's question was framed. "I have a severe vision loss that tends to fluxuate from almost being useful, to mostly being useless." 

     "I am amazed that you are here. er, Excuse me, but you are touring, sightseeing, are you not?" 

      "Yes, I try to get out of my own country every year to see a piece of the rest of the world. This sure is a fascinating culture!" 

     "Indeed it is. Extraordinary architecture don't you think. Er, that takes me back to my initial thought when I saw you arrive. Er, if you don't mind me asking, what do you get out of it? Er, I have a uncle who's severely vision impaired and I recall him telling me back in my childhood, sightseeing, er, traveling was out for him." 

     Well, here we were again and it didn't matter that we were in a foreign land or not. It was one of those heavy personal blindness questions and I had to decide how I wanted to answer this guy, long or short. So I said, "Not to be too elaborate in my answer, but the way I look at it is, that there is more to life than a picture

From: cheryl echevarria [mailto:cherylandmaxx at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2011 7:38 AM
To: newmanrl at cox.net
Subject: Re: My THOUGHT PROVOKER stuff

FYI,

I have been writing some stuff on my blog.

echevarriatravel.wordpress.com

I hope you get to read it.

I am also looking for people to speak at our meeting at National Convention in Dallas.

Don't have date and time yet, and you do some traveling, would love for you to come and speak at our meeting.

Let me know if you would be interested.

Thank you.

Leading the Way in Independent Travel!

Cheryl Echevarria
http://www.echevarriatravel.com<http://www.echevarriatravel.com/>
631-456-5394
reservations at echevarriatravel.com<mailto:reservations at echevarriatravel.com>

Affiliated as an Independent Contractor with Superior Travel, located in Baldwin, NY. www.superiortravel.com<http://www.superiortravel.com/>

  ----- Original Message ----- 

  From: Robert Leslie Newman<mailto:newmanrl at cox.net> 

  To: cheryl echevarria<mailto:cherylandmaxx at hotmail.com> 

  Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2011 8:11 AM

  Subject: My THOUGHT PROVOKER stuff

  Cheryl

  I did retire from creating and distributing THOUGHT PROVOKER. I stopped in March of mmm 2010. I needed to shake loose of that responsibility and free up time and energy to work on longer pieces. There again,  all 154 of the THOUGHT PROVOKERS are still up on my website for people to read and use. (URL is at the bottom of this message)

  Thanks (I'm not on the blindtalk list; I do know there was mention of me and my thought provokers on the NFBtalk list)

  Thanks

  Robert Leslie Newman

  President, Omaha Chapter NFB

  President, NFB Writers' Division

  Division Website

  http://www.nfb-writers-division.<http://www.nfb-writers-division./>net

  Chair, Newsletter Publication committee

  Personal Website-

  http://www.thoughtprovoker.info<http://www.thoughtprovoker.info/>