The 7 wonders of the World

On Tuesday the 12th of May 2009 I was lucky enough to attend a luncheon held at St Petri Lutheran Church hall, Nuriootpa. It was given by Lutheran Community Care to thank all the volunteers who assist in many roles during the year. Helping to collect food and presents for all the needy families: assisting with the Small Steps program: teaching simple cooking techniques: counselling: taxation advice: compiling Christmas hampers; delivering Christmas hampers and all the other little jobs that every organisation has to have.

 A lovely lady called Felicity Bleckly was the guest speaker. Felicity; a cochlear implant recipient and key member of the Cochlear Awareness Network received the HEARO award for her tireless efforts in raising awareness of hearing loss and the solutions available to help hearing impaired adults and children connect with the world around them. After living in silence for 20 years the cochlear implant transformed Felicity’s life. The mother of 3 now devotes her time to helping hearing-impaired people.  She is also the deafness editor of the Bella Online website where she writes articles about various issues affecting deaf people. Another important part of her life she gained back was her enjoyment for playing the piano. Felicity believes the things she learned along her journey and how she overcame some of these difficulties can help others in similar situations.

The very same week I saw an item about babies born deaf and how it is so difficult to learn any language without some hearing help.  My son Michael’s best friend Josef’s parents were born deaf and they have each got hearing aids. Pat told me that one of the benefits of having a hearing aid was the ability to turn it off when there was an argument and she’d had enough! So nice to be able to turn it on and off at will but not so nice when you can’t even answer a telephone, chat with friends, or call up a doctor’s surgery to make an appointment. Simple things that the majority of us take for granted: others have no inkling of these.

I read this story on line back then in 2009 and it made me think of everyone who has a disability:

Junior high school students in Chicago were studying the 7 Wonders of the World. At the end of the lesson the students were asked what they considered to be the 7 wonders of the world. Though there was some disagreement the following received the most votes:

1. Egypt’s great pyramids
2. The Taj Mahal in India
3. The Grand Canyon in Arizona
4. The Panama Canal
5. The Empire State building
6. St Peter’s Basilica
7. China’s Great Wall

While gathering the votes the teacher noted that one student: a quiet girl hadn’t turned in her paper yet, so she asked if she was having trouble with her list? The quiet girl replied: “yes, a little. I couldn’t quite make up my mind because there were so many” The teacher said “well tell us what you have and maybe we can help.”

The girl hesitated, then read “I think the 7 wonders of the world are:

1.      To touch…

2.      To taste…

3.      To see…

4.      To hear… (she hesitated a little while and then added…)

5.      To feel…

6.      To laugh…

7.      And to love"

The room was so quiet: you could hear a pin drop. 

May this story serve as a gentle reminder to all of us that the things we overlook as simple and ordinary are often the most wonderful - and we don’t have to travel anywhere special to experience them!

Enjoy your gifts!