Safe & Sound blog

    A teenager came up to chat with me after last week’s event at the Oak Park Public Library. “I have a poem published on the internet,” she said.
I was impressed, but I was busy signing books. I didn’t have time to ask what the poem was about. “Send me the link,” I told her. She did.
Her poem is published on a web site Called “Lose the Training Wheels.” Turns out the teenager is an identical twin. Without being able to see her, I had no idea she had any sort of disability. She and her sister were born prematurely, though, and the teen writer participated in a bike therapy program.
Here’s her poem. I think it’s great:
Learning to Ride — A Poem About Bike Riding
By Jessica

Unconquerable, undefeated, and proud
The wheels turning,
People whizzing past my face,
I wanted to learn
I wanted to ride
But I just couldn’t

My pink bike with “balance wheels”
People laughing,
As I felt hurt down deep within

I tried and tried but fell
It was frustrating
But I got back up again and tried again and again

Finally, the pink bike – the “balance wheels” gone forever
I felt like a mighty king at the top of a mountain,
Who was now unconquerable, undefeated, and proud.

Way to go, Jessica. You oughta be proud!

Every semester I give a guest lecture for a disability awareness class at DePaul University in Chicago. This semester, though, the class decided to come to me.
Twenty or so students piled into our apartment this afternoon to see where I live, how I manage in the house, and what my talking computer sounds like.
As an added bonus, they got to pet and play with a Seeing Eye dog. Hanni doesn’t wear her harness in the house – I know my way around, so I don’t need her to guide me. And when Hanni’s harness is off, she’s fair game – you can pet her, play with her, talk to her. The second her harness goes on again, though, she’s working. I ask people not to pet her or talk to her while she’s at work. Quoting Hanni from Safe & Sound:
“I like people, but they shouldn’t pet or talk to me while I’m working. That way, I can pay close attention to Beth. That way, we’ll be safe.”
Back to the DePaul students. I enjoyed having them over – they had lots of good questions. “How do you deal with trust? You have to trust a lot of people!” “Here’s a whimsical question: do you and other blind people dream differently than we do?”
A few students arrived early – one was thinking of majoring in journalism. It was fun to talk to her about writing, and her interest in journalism provides a segue to my next subject: my nephew Brian Miller is a writer, and he got a story published in an on-line magazine today!
Brian teaches English as a second language in South Korea –he has lots of interesting stories about life in Jeju. One of them was published today in World Hum. Brian and I found out about World Hum through my writer friend Tara Swords, her story “An Island in Costa Rica” was published there last year.
Obviously the editors at World Hum have good taste – congrats, Brian. Your aunt is very proud of you.
And now, it’s time to put Hanni’s harness on to take her out. Back to work –