HAPPEEE NEW YEAR TO ALL WHO COME HERE TONIGHT AND GOD'S BLESSINGS AND NEW YEAR'S BLESSINGS ON ALL.

Pray for the tsunami victims and please give prayers and material goods to comfort and aid them!

....Stanelle

I just finished reading the forums at a favorite online "deaf hangout" of mine. There was an interesting discussion going on about the difficulties of learning the English language and learning to express one's self properly in that language. In that forum,..the ideas and the way in which those ideas are expressed were striking, original and somewhat refreshing.

Ooooooooooooh Lordy is the hearing world going to be in for a "SHOCKEROOOOOO"...when some of those Deaf kids actually do start speaking up and expressing what they feel.

What I express as a person,.who learned language as a young child..(with my mom's brutal form of speech therapy)...and later developed and kept going on my own,..a steady growth of the usage of several languages in my own mind,..is merely a frustration of having to dig a bit harder for certain concepts and culteral references.

What those BORN DEAF folks at that forum are expressing is a livid resentment of a lifelong forced ingestion of the idea, that their modes of communication and their limited comprehension of certain hearing concepts, are inferior just because they don't use the English language in a fashion that is "acceptable" to the so-called "hearing world. "

I have been mocked and called "stupid" online because I need constant feedback to really understand what is going on even on a message board,..if it is inhabited by soly hearing folks. I can toss the English language around with the best,..I think,...and I've been called stupid. I wonder how some of the "snobs" that I've met online would.."tell off"...the Deaf PhD on that board....that he is stupid,..that he never should have been born,..and that his constant demands for feedback are symbolic of "bitterness" with his life!!

(Let me qualify the use of the word "snob,"..most online folks whom I have met and conversed with online are very nice and well meaning. Some of the kids that I have met online..are just that.."kids!"

And others,..well,..I just won't comment on.....!!)

Heh! I always thought that a hunger for feedback from other folks and an openess for what others had to say was a sign of intelligence,.not weakness or stupidity!!

(I googled this guy's name at the library,..and I must introduce him to Rosezelle. He is a Deaf PhD. He DOES read and comprehend classical Greek but he can't write it!! That certainly sounds familiar!! Oh God!! Does that EVER sound familiar!! I am thinking about my "Dutche!")

THAT NIECE HAS STRUCK AGAIN!!

This time,..instead of yelling at her,..I helped her find a job...at the local state hospital in the kitchen. If she is busy..she will have no time to resent the not so pleasnt aspects of her life and my cats don't get mistreated!!

And her mom and daddy, this time,..are both keeping her strictly OFF the computer!!

Crazies never die,..I guess. They just keep reaching out in their own little desparate ways for attention.

A friend of mine is going on a cyber-chase for me,...s/he is going to hunt a quarry,..one who has been a real pest!

Happy hunting, my friend!!

(A shark..trailing for prawn!)

Big excitment!! We have another offer to do a stage play of the Walking Free:Nellie Zimmerman Story!!! I am not allowed to say much about it yet,..but...it would be MOST APPROPRIATE FOR THIS GROUP OF FOLKS TO DO THIS PARTICULAR STAGE PLAY!!

Heh! Who knows,.. maybe the person,..who told me the book didn't exist,..would like tickets to the stage play!!

I have been asked by two small newspapers to do columns for them. I just hope that I can overcome my shyness to write for them!!

I will speak of the latest book signing and the Christmas party in my next blog entry!!

Gotta run!

According to "quizilla," I am a "fluff" writer. That could be taken...manyways!!!

So a book signing for THE BLACK HEART BOOK and WALKING FREE is coming up...within "WALKING DISTANCE" of my home!! And tempted as I might be to show up in old jeans and a sweatshirt,..I won't. I won't even have my head shaved in honor of the occasion..because this is something that I want to do. Heh! I've even agreed to bake a cinnamon apple pie for the celebration!!

I just wish that Nellie was here for the occasion. I wish that she could sit and sign the front page of HER book. I wish that she could have someone spell into her hands those words,..which have been told to Rosezelle and myself so many times,.."This book has changed my life!! Nellie's story has made me thankful for what I have and not what I don't have."

The knowledge that a young deaf man in a wheelchair is going to be given the opportunity to go to college because of her story...would make my deaf blind friend a very happy woman,..indeed!(And no, these folks deserve their privacy!! That particular incident will never get bandied about!)

Heh! Out there somewhere, I know,..is a person,..who unable to BUY such a life experience,..would busily set about e-mailing folks or telling all of those who would listen,.."This NEVER happened!! This never happened because such a one as myself says that it never happened...because I say that it never happened!!"

Let me tell this individual those individuals,.following such a holding pattern in their own existense,.."Such things as those events in Nellie's life..do happen. Such folk as Nellie and my friend "Ro," wheelchair bound and blessed with three children and two husbands and a succesful and happy life,..do exist. And no amount of money can buy certain life experiences. They must be lived!"

I'd better get off my soapbox!! I just celebrated my twenty fifth wedding anniversary. (I was told that I would be "unable to marry and have a normal life,"..and I was told this when I was a teenager.)

(Sorry,.....Stanelle,..you will never be able to have children!

Score:

.....seven miscarrages

One live birth!

Hoping for grandchildren in a few years!)

I could go on and on with the things that I was told that..."I could not possibly do" and then,.sit back for a giggle cause all of those things have already been done by me in my life time and by other folks around me,..who were given the same life sentence of nothingness.

Five years ago,.in spite of all evidence to the contrary,..a "rehab' person told me very expertly that,.."You could not have done all of the things that you have claimed to have done!!"

My college degrees were sitting right in front of her face as were a slew of newspaper articles about my work with the Deaf and dis-Abled. She ignored all of this evidence to the contrary of what she was saying and insisted that..."You just can't do that sort of.."normal stuff." It is physically and mentally impossible for you to..."accomplish anything!"

I got her on audiotape saying that. (She let me audiotape her,..I suppose,..because she didn't think that I had sense enough to know what to do with the tape!!!!)

Online,..I have been told that a book,..which I will be signing at the upcoming book signing,.."does not exist." Hmmmn! I suppose that it "didn't exist"...just because the person,..who told me that,..said that it didn't exist?

As I busily sign.."Life is more than what you see".. said book, WALKING FREE, at the "book signing event",..I will remember the influence of such folks in my life. I will even remember them while hopefully someday in the future...I play with my grandchildren and tell them the story of the deaf blind lady,.who taught me how to "walk free!'"

I am proud of our books and I am proud that we have sold so many of them and have come...so close,..so close,..so close to being considered a "success" with them. I guess that I'll wear a dress and sit and smile and sign WALKING FREE and answer questions like.."How many times a day does a blind person bump into walls ?" or "Do the blind REALLY play baseball?"

(Yes,...the blind really do play baseball!! They play it with a beeping ball and I guess have a lot of fun with their version of the game!!")

I am still thinking over the movie,..The Incredibles. One thing, that I REALLY noticed about that movie, was the fact that the two children in the movie were but pale shadows of what they really could be until their parents allowed them to be who they really were..i..e..a girl, who could create force fields and become invisible,,..and a boy,..who could run so fast that he could literally walk on water. Forced to pose as ordinary people,..these two were miserable and could only settle for the short end of the stick..girl..ie..becoming invisible when she is embaressed, and boy..i..e...putting tacks on his teacher's seat faster than even film could catch him.

Only when Mrs. I-Man allowed her family to use their natural gifts in the proper context did the children blossom and bloom and grow into people,.who could present themselves to the world and to society,..as fully rounded and developed individuals. I had to laugh at the I-Man within the context of the insurance company...(my son had told me about how I-Man was sneaking "info" to the "granny,"..who had to collect on her policy!!)

Poor I-Man could only keep on doing good even though he was told that helping folks get their due from the company was "bad." I think that the I-Man was only following his true nature. People are consistant that way. This is one thing that I have learned in my lifetime. People develop different behaviors and stick with them. I have seen this online and offline and in my family and in myself. I am no great expert on this subject and I don't pretend to be the final word on anything.

Yet, forced as I am to be a "side-liner" to certain groups in life,..both online and off-line,...I have noticed certain behaviors which keep popping up again and again and again. I have also noticed that no matter how many times that one tells the absolute truth to certain people...if those people DON'T want to believe you..there is no way in HELL that you can convince those folks that you really ARE telling the truth!!

Heh! There are even certain types,..who will invent their own "version" of truth of what you have told as truth and know it to be true because you have lived it... in order to achieve their agendas and goals. Groan! But that IS life.

The "I-Man" family finally achieved "stability" and "fullfilment of personal goals" when they were willing to live within society in a way that would allow them to use their gifts and also blend in among those that were "non-super" folks.

The "I-Man" family had to:

(A) work hard as individuals to "blend" into society as individuals within the society in which they were living.

(B) They had to teach their children the self-control in order to function within that society.

(C) They also had to find ways in which to express themselves as the beings that they truly were in order to find personal fullfilment and to develop wholly as individuals.

The family,..the three of us,..went to see the movie,..The Incredibles,..last night. I was looking forward to seeing this wonder of computer animation because my son had previously pointed out most of the clever dialogue ahead of time for me and had told me where to anticipate the funny parts and the ideas behind them. I had no problem smiling and laughing and nodding with the rest of the crowd and I do believe that I kept up with other folks' reactions to the movie appropriately.

Before the movie, most interestingly,..there was a cartoon about a sheep, who could jump higher than any other creature around and all of the other critters seemed to admire him for that ability. ..I think that the cartoon had something to do with an athletic contest as the creatures in it all kept jumping higher and higher and highr, but the sheep could outjump them all and could do it with a huge load of wool on his back!!

I thought that he would be thrilled when he was sheared,..but no,..the sheep began feeling sorry for himself and crying when the shepherds took his wool. The other animals made fun of the sheep...and avoided him. Then,..I noticed that a strange furry creature,..that had no wool and had antlers,..came along and taught the sheep how to jump higher without his wool than he could with his wool. The sheep had friends again and all of the critters could jump around happily together again for a while.


..But alas,...the sheep's wool grew back and he could not jump so high anymore so till the shepherds came back and clipped his wool again. The sheep had,..happily,..developed his jumping ability to the point where he could jump very high with or without the wool, dragging him down, and so he could jump with the other creatures around him and did not lose his standing in the animal community. Nice little story!

The Incredibles was a very nice feature too. It showed a family of superfolks,..trying to settle down into so-called normal life. I think that this had something to do with the fact that I-Man, the husband,..of the family getting sued by someone,..all of the visual cues that pould see pointed in that direction. Then,.I-Man tried to work an office job. He was terrible at that job and very much UNHAPPY till he got a secret agent job....? I noticed that he refused to help with the children and the housework. That seemed normal male behavior!!

(I will tell more about this movie later!)