Helen Keller

Everyone knows Helen Keller. If nothing else, we've heard the jokes, right? But you will know her in a new and refreshing way when you read her own account of her life.

She hesitated to write her autobiography because she found that "fact and fancy look alike across the years that link the past with the present." She describes herself as a child who had "an eager, self-asserting disposition....I was strong, active, indifferent to consequences. I knew my own mind well enough and always had my own way, even if I had to fight tooth and nail for it." Even though that stubbornness and determination made her a difficult child, those characteristics served her well through the years and were enormous factors in her successes.

So was the coming of her beloved Annie Sullivan. Before Annie came, Helen didn't understand what it was to love or to be in relationship to others. "Thus it is when we walk in the valley of twofold solitude, we know little of the tender affections that grow out of endearing words and actions and companionship." But Miss Sullivan's patience and persistence eventually produced fruit: "The beautiful truth burst upon my mind - I felt that there were invisible lines stretched between my spirit and the spirit of others." She finally began to grasp the meaning of love. She says of Annie, "At the beginning I was only a little mass of possibilities. It was my teacher who unfolded and developed them. When she came, everything about me breathed of love and joy and was full of meaning. She has never since let pass an opportunity to point out the beauty that is in everything, nor has she ceased trying in thought and action and example to make my life sweet and useful. There is not a talent, or an aspiration or a joy in me that has not been awakened by her loving touch."

Helen never lost her resolve to experience the world and all of life as fully as any human with all his sensory faculties intact. Indeed, her descriptions of scenery and events reveal an acute sense of observation which far exceeds my own! In spite of her limitations, she learned to know everything around her with great precision. At first, she was wholly dependent on others for this knowledge, but in time she even learned to observe, know, and understand much on her own.

Not only did she conquer the seemingly insurmountable obstacles to basic knowledge, such as reading, writing and speech, she even successfully tackled Latin, German, and French, making herself college-ready! After entering college, she discovered that many of the texts were not yet available in Braille, so the classes required intense labor and excessive hours which sometimes frustrated her. "There are days when the close attention I must give to details chafes my spirit, and the thought that I must spend hours reading a few chapters, while in the world without other girls are laughing and singing and dancing, makes me rebellious; but I soon recover my buoyancy and laugh the discontent out of my heart. For afterall, everyone who wishes to gain true knowledge must climb the Hill Difficulty alone, and since there is no royal road to the summit, I must zigzag it in my own way. I slip back many times, I fall, I stand still, I run against the edge of hidden obstacles, I lose my temper and find it again and keep it better, I trudge on, I gain a little, I feel encouraged, I get more eager and climb higher and begin to see the widening horizon. Every struggle is a victory. One more effort and I reach the luminous cloud, the blue depths of the sky, the uplands of my desire."

Helen's successes were not all academic. Many found her company delightful and she was afforded unique opportunities to meet and know many reknowned men and women, and she developed significant friendships along the way. "Those are red-letter days in our lives when we meet people who thrill us like a fine poem, people whose handshake is brimful of unspoken sympathy, and whose sweet, rich natures impart to our eager, impatient spirits a wonderful restfulness which, in its essence, is divine. While such friends are near us we feel that all is well...the influence of their calm natures is a libation poured upon our discontent, and we feel its healing touch."

Miss Keller's life and attitude challenge me to view m own life through new lenses. If I can adopt the frame of mind which she expresses below, I might more easily rise above present circumstances in order to bless others.

"Is it not true, then, that my life with all its limitations touches at many points the life of the World Beautiful? Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.

Sometimes, it is true, a sense of isolation enfolds me like a cold mist as I sit alone and wait at life's shut gate. Beyond there is light, and music and sweet companionship; but I may not enter. Fate, silent, pitiless, bars the way. Fain would I question his imperious decree; for my heart is still undisciplined and passionate; but my tongue will not utter the bitter, futile words that rise to my lips, and they fall back into my heart like unshed tears. Silence sits immense upon my soul. Then comes hope with a smile and whispers, 'There is joy in self-forgetfulness.' So I try to make the light in others' eyes my sun, the music in others' ears my symphony, the smile on others' lips my happiness."

Thank you, Helen Keller, for a life well-lived.