Thursday, March 31, 2011

A Class Reading

This week in class we were assigned a short reading - an article (dated January 1933) by Helen Keller that appeared in The Atlantic Monthly entitled, Three Days to See. It was a very moving article and it actually had me in tears at one point. I don't know how a person who was blind and deaf since before she was two years old could have attained such heights and such marvelous insights about life. Reading this short article has really peaked my interest and I now want to read her autobiography, The Story of My Life. I have seen the movie, The Miracle Worker, which is based on her book but I don't remember ever having read her autobiography. I was surprised to hear that Helen Keller lived in Forest Hills, a stone's throw from where I grew up.
Anyway, before retiring for the night, I would like to share a couple of sentences from the reading:
  • "If I were the president of a university I should establish a compulsory course in "How to Use your Eyes". The professor would try to show his pupils how they could add joy to their lives by really seeing what passes unnoticed before them. He would awake their dormant and sluggish facilities."
  • "..... set your mind to work on the problem of how you would use your own eyes if you had only three more days to see. If with the oncoming darkness of the third night you knew that the sun would never rise for you again, how would you spend those three precious intervening days? What would you most want to let your gaze rest upon?"
Good Night and God Bless, Mary Beth

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