[Travelandtourism] Travel Independence how do we feel about this, please read all of the e-mail

[cheryl echevarria]

Thank you Julie:

Again, I would like and this isn't mandatory for anyone it was brought up at our board meeting last night about this.

And it will be an article on or a link to it on the travel and tourism division website.

It was also to start dialogue with the people on this list and the membership.

Again, I ask being the moderator of the list, that we all respect one another, others have different way of doing things and reading things.

So let us respect one another on this, which I didn't see anyone doing otherwise.

Being someone who was fully sighted to being today almost totally blind; I have been there and done that, but at the same time, I know my limitations and this is where we all need to set; whether it is walking independently or anything else in this life of ours.

Another example of this, I also suffer from a kidney disease from diabetes, when I am out in the heat and walk to long I become out of breathe, and I will get a wheelchair if I need one to keep up with others, or not to move on if we are somewhere. 

Like having dialogue, it is important.
Leading the Way in Independent Travel!

Cheryl Echevarria
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631-456-5394
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Affiliated as an Independent Contractor with Superior Travel, located in Baldwin, NY. www.superiortravel.com<http://www.superiortravel.com/>

Affiliated as an Independent Contractor with Absolute Cruise & Travel, Inc.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Julie J.<mailto:julielj at neb.rr.com> 
  To: NFB Travel and Tourism Division List<mailto:travelandtourism at nfbnet.org> 
  Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2011 7:21 PM
  Subject: Re: [Travelandtourism] Travel Independence how do we feel about this, please read all of the e-mail


  I've read the "Nature of Independence" several times over the years.  I 
  think I took away a slightly different perspective on it than others here.

  Yes, it's important for us to accept help gracefully, but I also think 
  it's important for us to refuse help gracefully when we feel that is the 
  better course of action.  I think that sometimes it's more about where 
  we are with our blindness than it is about how we look to the public. An 
  example was given about a woman who spent several minutes finding a 
  door., refusing help.  At first glance it may seem that she chose 
  wrongly, but I'm not sure.  First it isn't up to anyone but the 
  individual to make that decision.  Second she may have been at a place 
  in her life where she needed to figure out where the door was for 
  herself.  How will she learn without making mistakes?  Looking silly for 
  five minutes is a small price to pay to learn a valuable skill that will 
  serve her well in the future.  I do agree that rudeness in refusing help 
  is inappropriate, although sometimes even a polite refusal is taken badly.

  I think in order to be truly comfortable with our blindness and 
  accepting help, we need to go through the first two phases of 
  development in the "nature of Independence".  We have to experience 
  feelings of helplessness in order to gain the desire to learn new ways 
  of doing things for ourselves.  then we have to practice those skills 
  until they become second nature.  We have to prove to ourselves in our 
  hearts that we can in fact compete with our peers both sighted and blind 
  on terms of equality.  Once we get to that point accepting help becomes 
  easier because there isn't the emotional baggage to accompany it.  In 
  the beginning, the helpless stage, I think we resent needing help.  We 
  know we don't have the skills or know how to accomplish the task.  
  Accepting help then is reinforcing that we can't do something 
  ourselves.  In the second stage of fierce  independence, we have 
  difficulty accepting help because it infringes on our pride.  In the 
  third stage, true independence, we can accept or not accept help as we 
  see fit without guilt or a blow to our pride because we know in our 
  hearts that we are independent.  We know that we are a whole person 
  regardless of whether or not we choose to accept help.

  I'd ask that we not judge each other so harshly on whether or not we 
  choose to accept help and that we are gentle with those who we perceive 
  as having less skills.  None of us is perfect and we all had to begin 
  somewhere.

  Julie


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