Ardith Hinton wrote to James Bradley, "Look Out...  1." on 10-02-05 23:52

 JB>  I almost fell off my chair.

 AH>  Because you saw my message just after your adventures
 AH>  with sailing...?

 JB>  Because I'm imbalanced. 


 AH>           That's okay... all my favourite people are weird.  :-))

See Tammy? She encourages us! 


 AH>  One of the life guards tipped over a kayak with me in it,
 AH>  then helped me figure out how to get back in.

 JB>  Sounds like a page out of the lesson book to me.


 AH>           Yes, it probably is.  It's not quite the same as
 AH> getting dumped into the water when one least expects it.
 AH> Nora is a bit ahead of me there....  :-)

In the structured 'classes' I went to, we were required to get wet in
order to test our newly learnt lessons. For you, it sounds like
things were a little more free-form, but equally effective, or more
so. BTW, no... We dunked ourselves in a glacier feed river!


 AH>  Nora was not the slightest bit reluctant to try canoeing
 AH>  again.  She did that a few days after the sailing episode
 AH>  ....  :-)

 JB>  Ah... Nora's my kind!


 AH>           I figured... [chuckle].

Crazy like a fox!

 JB>  The teacher, I'd have to scold, though. Did she figure
 JB>  out quickly an upturned canoe makes a better flotation
 JB>  device than a dead hero?


 AH>           I don't what happened next.  She's one of those people...
 AH> trying not to bore you with psychobabble... whose hearts rule
 AH> their heads, who have loads of empathy but don't seem to
 AH> remember the basic laws of physics & whatnot when the
 AH> situation requires that they put such concepts to use.

In that case, I wouldn't let loose with both barrels. I would still
try to edumicate her though. 

 AH> While I appreciate her ability to tune in to Nora's needs
 AH> in many ways, I often have to spell out practical details.
 AH> People generally resort to their preferred reasoning style
 AH> in an emergency... so I'm not sure she'd catch on quickly!

That is a tough one to call. A grunt can be the best recruit in
training, but once the first bullet flies, he may wet his pants, and
drop his firearm.

 AH> I heard many years ago that a canoe makes an excellent
 AH> flotation device & I haven't forgotten it. Whether or not
 AH> I'd catch on any more quickly in the same situation I can't
 AH> say because I've never been in a canoe.  I knew how to deal
 AH> with my aunt's aphasia some time after seeing an article
 AH> about it in READER'S DIGEST, however.  I may be unusual in
 AH> that I notice such things before the need arises....  :-)

I'll bite. What is aphasia?


 AH>  We all got interested in kayaking when Nora tried it.
 AH>  For her it was a revelation

 JB>  Independence?


 AH>           I'm sure that was part of it.  She had found a new mode of
 AH> transport *and* she could get around by herself, with the right adaptive
 AH> equipment.  :-)

It can be liberating, just to be on a fluid, and getting somewhere is
a bonus. Starting with my first ten day trip with the city program, I
was hooked. The truth was, I was hooked on getting outa town when we
pedalled bicycles up the Great Divide. Coming home, I was a  vigorous
teen, with plenty of fresh air in my lungs, lacked the usual junk food
in my belly, and enough exercise and hormones to light a small city.

Of course the folks knew exactly what to do. Send me away, so someone
else would have to deal with me.  Hiking, I knew I'd have to slump
my own toothbrush around, so I chose the aquatic trip, and the river
would have to slump my stuff around.

Lazy? ABSOLUTELY!  It took up the next four or five years, but I
never did find enough of that adrenalin to kill me. Besides being
invincible at the the time... <-;

 JB>  Tricycle, training wheels, bicycle, skateboard...

 AH>           Persactly.  I'm reminded of an incident which occurred when
 AH> Nora was about 3 1/2.  She'd just been in hospital, where there are many
 AH> wheelchairs... and she was at the developmental stage in
 AH> which kids point at various things & name them.  One day
 AH> when I took Nora to a local shopping area she pointed at a
 AH> bicycle, a bus, and a wheelchair.  As a teacher, I was
 AH> thrilled.  I recognized that she was categorizing & I'd had
 AH> a student in grade six who couldn't do it! The older woman
 AH> in the wheelchair was miffed, however... I guess because
 AH> she'd grown up when it was considered impolite to look at a
 AH> wheelchair.  IMHO people who adhere to such "rules" often
 AH> miss the point.  If others aren't expected to waste energy
 AH> pretending they didn't notice the wheelchair, they have
 AH> much more energy available to pay attention to the person
 AH> who's in it.  This woman never thought to ask herself why
 AH> Nora was still using a stroller, when other kids of the
 AH> same age walk to the area, so she didn't see what they had
 AH> in common.  She may not have wanted to, though... sometimes
 AH> people prefer to feel unique.

Politics, religion, and sex.... What else is there to talk about?

Well, there *is* no accounting for a persons preference, but once to
 mix in the prejudices, and inflexibility, you REALLY get me
 frustrated. I keep tellin' the sister, if the person's intent is
 dark, how do you deal with that? If the person actually wants to
 improve, adapt, or at least get along in peace, that's where I prefer
 to be. 


 AH>           To Nora, a wheelchair is another of many ways to
 AH> get around.  I like that... and so far none of the
 AH> occupants has bitten my head off when I've said something
 AH> along the lines of "I see you have a Snazzy 850.  How do
 AH> you find it on rough ground (or on the bus)?" even if she
 AH> wasn't with me at the time.  :-)

Nothing breaks up my day, like when someone cajoles about one thing
or another. If I step aside to let someone through, the abled walker
often takes a step in hesitation. (Maybe ingrained to not put
themselves ahead of the downtrodden???) I tell them, "Slow moving traffic
takes the right lane." and wave them through. Hell, it can break up
their day too, and their work environment seems a little more
tolerable for the rest of their day. I still haven't heard a good
comeback to that one. Lots of smiles though, and that's all that
counts.



... Your Karma, ran over MY dogma!
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