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

Tue Feb 16 01:54:56 UTC 2010

With respect, although I agree with most of your analysis, I think your 
advocacy of "dress canes" and the like is utter nonsense. It's about in the 
same category as having cellphones that match one's purse! Sheesh!

Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Bullis" <mabullis at hotmail.com>
To: <newmanrl at cox.net>; "'NFB Talk Mailing List'" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 4:59 PM
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
>
> _______________________________________________
> nfb-talk mailing list
> nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-talk_nfbnet.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nfb-talk mailing list
> nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-talk_nfbnet.org 