Tommy Lasorda
once said “The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a
man’s determination.” The story “Versabraille” by Bill Schermbrucker and the
article “Blindly He Goes…Up” by Steve Rushin who don’t let their unseeing eyes
stop them from accomplishing their goals. Erik has successfully climbed many
mountains including the treacherous journey of Mount Everest and Jim lives an
active life and had a “thriving physiotherapy practice”. Uncle Jim and Erik share several of the
same qualities while facing their challenges. Both are determined, optimistic
and humorous.
Erik and Jim
have both been able to do what they desire and being blind hasn’t stopped them.
They are both are determined to conquer their goals. Erik who became entirely
blind at age 13 “is a skydiver, a paraglider and a marathon runner” and “has
climbed the Seven Summits”. Jim, who “cannot remember actually seeing things”,
went into town by himself, when he was seven to buy his father Rum and Maple.
He also would travel to “three separate hospitals” for his physiotherapy
practice and one was “at least a mile from the train”. It may seem to some that
they “managed all this without…apparent difficulty” but even people who can see
perfectly fine would have trouble facing these challenges. It doesn’t mean Erik
and Jim didn’t have difficulty, it means that they accomplished their goals
because they were determined.
Neither Erik nor
Jim let the fact that they are blind stop them from doing what they love and
having a positive look on life. Jim doesn’t let his disability stop him;
instead he uses it to stand up for what he believes in and finding ways to help
the blind and “make them independent”. He is trying to move blind people away
from using guide dogs because if one dies “it’s not easy to adapt to a new one”
and many people “homebound now” because of it. He tries to help spread
awareness by using his blindness to bring attention to a problem many people
may face. Erik has “scaled the rock face of Yosemite’s El Capitan” and “the
icefall of Polar Circus in the Canadian Rockies”. He didn’t let not being able
to see stop him from climbing “the fiberglass Matterhorn at Disneyland” either
or Everest. Both men continue being optimistic about life and remain perusing
their dreams.
Although both
are blind, Erik and Jim both have a clever sense of humor. Before Erik went to
climb Mount Everest the Sherpa’s didn’t believe he was blind and to prove to
them he was he, he “pulled down his lower left eyelid” and his “prosthetic eye
drop into his cupped hand”. It dropped “like an olive into a martini glass” and
when we offered to remove his right eye but the head Sherpa said she believed
him. Also when Erik was a schoolteacher he snatched a “crinkling note” from a
student that was about to pass is. “He threatened to read it to the hushed
class”. “The kids knew [he] was blind” but somehow figured he was able to read
it. Jim as a child made his siblings jealous because when it was lights out he
could continue reading while they had to put their books away and go to bed.
They could hear him “chuckling away to himself” as he could “just go on
reading”. Both Erik and Jim find
ways to keep their lives interesting and bring humor into them.
Both Erik and Jim are determined in
achieving their goals. They show the world that although life can be difficult
if you are determined enough its possible to achieve your goals and make your
dreams come true. Erik and Jim demonstrate that it is possible to achieve your
goals even if you have a disability such as their unseeing eyes.
