It is my pleasure to have this time with you Ms. Keller. Your triumphs against all odds have been an inspiration for a countless number of people.
THP: It is hard for me to fathom the depths of your resolve. Quitting would have been so much easier.
HK: No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit. All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming. One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.
THP: What is it that prevents a person from soaring Ms. Keller?
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.”
HK: Many people know so little about what is beyond their short range of experience. They look within themselves – and find nothing! Therefore they conclude that there is nothing outside themselves either. Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
THP: What was that turning point for you, the daring adventure, as you put it?
“…my life was without past or future…but…”
HK: Once I knew only darkness and stillness…my life was without past or future…but a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living.
THP: I imagine that moment was intense. Not only the ability to communicate, but the other doors it opened simultaneously, such as reading.
HK: Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.
THP: I find it interesting that you mention ’embarrassment and awkwardness’. We all feel this way at one time or another. It can be a bit stifling.
“Look the world straight in the eye.”
HK: Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.
THP: Ms. Keller, how do we hold our head high when feeling like we are on the bottom rung? When feeling inadequate?
“I seldom think about my limitations…”
HK: I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.
THP: Simply amazing. Ms. Keller, we all want to count. We want to make a difference with our life. Your life has.
“…I can do something…”
HK: I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
THP: Any final advice for Living it LOUD?
“Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.”
~ one of my heroes…Helen Keller
Now…Live it LOUD!