I've been reading Helen Keller's autobiography this week. I enjoy the way she puts her words together. We learn words through hearing others in conversation or just passively listening. Many times we don't even realize how much we're learning just through our ability to hear. Learning came much slower for Helen Keller because she didn't hear words. Her teacher had to consistently form them on her hand, spelling out to Helen what was around her; how the wind blew, how pain felt, what love was. Helen would feel these things but was unable to put words to them and it kept her from even truly understanding them.
I took pictures of two paragraphs I like. Language was a mystery to her. Linking feelings and objects with letters that made words was a mystery to her. I love words, expecially small ones. Because words are all Helen Keller had to communicate with, it is uniquely enjoyable for me to read her writing.
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Language itself is such an amazing mystery to me. Most of us have that incredible w-a-t-e-r means water connection far too early in our lives to ever treasure it. These sorts of thoughts occur to me whenever I ask children "what's this?" and they say "ball." But the incredible thing is that they know what I mean by "what's this?" even before they make the connection between the object and the word. Our minds are truly too incredible for me to fathom. And that is simply the finite.
nteresting tid-bit...
Did you know that Helen Keller was a hard core socialist? I
who are you?
my guess is that's lowen. he'll even badmouth mother theresa.
Oh man. I realize now that I said "incredible" at least fifty-gazillion times in my above comment. How incredible.
All I know about anon E. mouse is that the incognito one is not-me.
well if it's lowen...i'll see you at 8pm tonight. we can sort it out then!
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