Thoughts About Directions

Subject: Re: [acb-l] Thoughts About Directions


Bonnie,
I have come to believe that it is a matter of wiring. Some brains are wired
differently than others.
There are folks who are risk takers and those who are cautious. Extroverts
and introverts. Detail oriented and generalists. Pitch perfect and tone
deaf. And on and on it goes. We all look similar, but we can be very
different beneath our hat.
Just as we have no control over being born male or female, we are "given"
these other differences. And try as we may we cannot effect much of a
change.
In fact, my job as a rehab teacher is not to change you. My job is to
assist you in developing ways to most effectively use what you have.

Carl Jarvis


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bonnie Blose" <bookmaven1@frontier.com>
To: "acb-l" <acb-l@acb.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 02, 2013 12:19 PM
Subject: [acb-l] Thoughts About Directions


Since I read Carl's description of the woman who got lost in his
home, I have been thinking and trying to imagine what it would be
like to suddenly rely on other senses than the one you have had for
so long and no longer do. I believe there are people who simply can't
process their surroundings without the vision they have counted on.
It would be interesting to know how this lady did when she had vision
as some people have great difficulty with directions with vision too.
Obviously, I am not a psychologist but I do wonder if the concept of
using other senses is so frightening it may cause a person to simply
freeze. Ability to process and sift information or take in
surroundings may vanish at the time of crisis. Most of the time it is
temporary like it was for me when our house burned down. Left to
myself, even the intellect or ability of a genius level mentality
would have been of no use. I froze. I remember only one thing about
those moments, actually two. I remember the smell of things burning.
I can still sense it. I remember hearing things burning all around me
and how close they were. I had no ability to process what that meant
for the rest of my life in order to have a life. There was simply no
connection. I wonder if, in some situations, some people have this
kind of experience and simply don't get past that moment of shock or
perhaps mental paralysis in which they simply can't process
information. A fire is a temporary thing, I admit. I remember walking
to the property alone to make myself deal with the fact the house was
no longer there and to smell the smoke which lingered afterward. I
remember not telling anyone I was going to do it or why I needed it.
I did it to say goodbye to a place which no longer gave me shelter
and existed for all time only in my mind.
If you tell a newly blind person like this lady about familiar things
and she has no visual ability to process, is there a type of
transference she simply can't make or even accept. It doesn't seem to
me at all with wanting to do something or not. I wonder if it is a
type of disconnect of some kind. I do non know the answer. I am not a
mental health professional of any kind. I offer this as theory only.
I just know if you prize something very highly so much so that it
defines you, it sounds like a possibility. If not, maybe the health
professional can use my imagination for some new psychological
malady, although I suppose they have enough new ideas through what
they see on a daily basis without my help. I went to the dentist to
have wisdom teeth pulled many years ago. While there, my dentist
said, "you have an extra tooth." I started glowing all over with the
specialness of it all. The possibilities seemed endless. Could there
be something advantageous in this for me? My daydream was of very
short duration. That dentist wasted no time in telling me it was
quite common to have an extra tooth. I listen to professionals. They
always know. I just don't always take their thoughts as truth.
Listening never hurts anyone.

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