A new friend, a new inspiration.

My mom and I threw a party for everyone who contributed to our winning VisionWalk effort. I was skeptical when mom floated the idea, but it turned out to be terrific. People were so thrilled to be thanked in this personal and festive way, and it provided us with a great opportunity to get a broad cross-section of friends and acquaintances together. We intend to make this an annual tradition, and would love to entice some of our far-away supporters to join us next year.

In addition to our contributors, my mother also invited a couple of folks from the Foundation Fighting Blindness. One of the local volunteers brought along Michael Stone, whose blindness is caused by a related, but somewhat different retinal degenerative disease from my own. Michael just completed his sixth Ironman in Hawaii. He lives here in Boulder, and we discovered that we've done many of the same training events and races over the years. He's much faster and more competitive than I am, of course, but we still found it rather amazing that we'd never met before.

Talking to Michael was a first for me. I know other deaf people who do the same activities that I do, and we've shared tips and tricks and laughs over our unique needs and experiences. But never before have I talked about climbing, skiing, and triathlons with a fellow blind person.

Michael and I commiserated about the incredible challenge of sighting (and swimming in the right direction) in open water. He has some adaptive techniques he's mastered, which he promised to share with me. We talked about cycling - how to train alone, safely, and how to ride in races, safely, and how we can't go downhill fast (at least not safely). We talked about climbing, his first love, and a sport he gave up when he was diagnosed with his visual impairment. I encouraged him to climb again, with Steve and me and our friends, since he indicated that he'd stopped climbing in part because his partners weren't able to accommodate his changing needs and abilities.

As those of you who've been reading for a while know, I'm terrified about losing more of my vision. Michael, I think, sees somewhat less than I do, at least as far as his central vision is concerned. And yet, he's doing the things I want to be doing (and at a much higher level than I am). He's living fully and independently and actively.  Meeting him has given me both hope and inspiration.

Plus, he's a great guy, and we're all looking forward to getting to know him better.

Comments

[janet]

wow, he sounds like an amazing guy! I am reallllllly hoping (cross your fingers) to move back to the Denver area next year or so, and then I will come to your party! :)

[rebecca]

mad, that post made my day! i am really happy to hear that you met michael :-) ~xo