What Can a Mind Do?

Frank B. WithrowBy Frank B. Withrow

A mind in a crippled body can explore the heights of science and move all mankind forward into new scientific knowledge. Stephen Hawking opens up new scientific vistas. Helen Keller, out of darkness and silence, through words opens new avenues of interpersonal relationships. Blind musicians like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder bring new melodies into our lives. In yesteryears a President who could not walk bonded us together and inspired us to weather our economic woes and then fight our way through World War II. A deaf man invented electric lights.

Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Stephen Hawking

Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Stephen Hawking

Electric lights and wearable glasses moved mankind forward. Electric lights enable man to read 24 hours each day, and wearable glasses allow us to see well enough to read throughout our life times. Books and wearable glasses enable mankind to search the wisdom and knowledge of the past.

Franklin Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Thomas Edison

Franklin Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Thomas Edison

The mind can solve the most intricate problem or puzzle. To see, to hear, to feel, to smell and to taste enable the human to know his or her world. The mind organizes these sensory experiences into words and language. Speech and language are public expressions of our private sensory experiences. The voice in our minds organizes our world. If I am blind the world is auditory. If I am deaf my word is visual.

If I am deaf blind my world is tactile. Through language I share my world with others. If I am deaf blind I share my world through tactile touches. My world is at my fingertips. My hands provide a symphony for my mind. There is an incredible wonder that, through touch and feeling, I know the world and that I share my thoughts and wisdom through my hands. Yes, I smell and taste, but touch is my keystone, the entrance to my mind. The sharing of my mind with others makes me a part of the larger world.

If I am deaf blind, my mind is a marvelous complex web that gives me the spark of life that says I am of the human race, I am important, I have a mind that binds me to others. I learn from others and others learn from me. I cannot see the wondrous colors of a sunset or a rainbow or the beauty of your face. I cannot hear the rain drops of a thunderstorm. I can smell the rain, I can feel the wind in my face, I can touch your face and I can know. My mind creates tactile words that I can feel. I am a unique and marvelous human being able to live a full and productive life. My mind organizes my world. I want to share your world. By my fingertips I shall know you. By my hands you shall know me.

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