DAY THREE (Interim report)

Any day that starts with pizza for breakfast is a good day indeed. Although the first question of the day was - and I quote -

WHY IS THE ALARM GOING OFF AT 5:30 IN THE MORNING? A CONVENTION IS SUPPOSED TO BE A TIME OF REST AND PLAY AND SLEEPING LATE!!!

Not. At least when it's Sunday and morning Mass is at 7:15 AM and everyone knows that you're a priest. Now I was not the celebrant, so I did not need to be particularly awake,but I did need to be present. I was (present) and was not (particularly awake). But (as sometimes happens after a Mass at which I am a pew participant) a number of people came up to talk about my singing. The Mass itself was led by a priest who has been associated with the NFB (see yesterday) and it was ok. I'm a Mass critic, worse than theatre, and there were things I would have done differently. The cantor raised her hand to indicate that people shoudl sing. Hello - this is a group of blind folk. No ushers to help coordinate movement for communion, nor talking voices or guides to help people find the Minister of the cup on each side - which led to some interesting moments. And at the end they sang three of the four verses of America - leaving out the most beautiful!!! Grrrr. Now if >>I<< were in charge of the world.....

Dashed off to buy a NY Times ($6!!! - thank heaven for the pizza because having paid for the paper I couldn't afford breakfast). Made myself a cup of coffee from the room brewer and off to the meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind.

Note: For all their other talents, blind people at a meeting can be just as boring as sighted people. Equal opportunity taken to its logical conclusion. A HUGE ballroom which was only about 1/3 full, but which was chilled for full capacity so I ended up leaving early simply because I was freezing. And I needed the time to do some other business.

So I'm sending this - off to the exhibit hall to make a purchase - and to a meeting of the National Association of the Blind in Communities of Faith. I have NO idea what this group is about but I have loaded my bag with materials and off I go. I won't stay for the whole thing unless it's terrific - there is a meeting of people planning activities for Meet the Blind month at 3:15, a meeting of Kurzweil users at 5:30, National Guide Dog users at 6 PM, the National Association of Blind Veterans at 7 (also a meeting of those interested in promoting use of Braille at 7) and a caucus of the NY delegation at 9:15. Now where I get to eat in all of this I have NO idea - so it might be a low budget, low calorie kind of day.

(Some time later)
When I was on Kwaj, the golf pro used to repeat (often) "It's all good." (Have you ever known a golfer who was not a philosopher? Although the same relationship cannot be assumed of philosophers...) Today - so far - it's all good, although I have to work a little harder at finding it. I have spent the day in meetings with little or no immediate value. I went to the meeting of faith communities - veyr evangelical, lots of alleluia's and amens, and not a lot of concrete information. (Although they did manage to extract a $5 membership fee, so I expect I will receive the odd e-mail during the coming year.) From there to a meeting on how to morre effectively reach senior citizens, whose eyesight is failing. I didn't spend a lot of time there but there was a lot of talk about crafts and what it was like to be a grandmother. On to the meeting about "Meet the Braille" month, an annual event designed to help educate the wider world about the blind and what they can do. (Ie, pretty much anything.. All right, flying a plane is tricky - actually flying is easy, landing is hard)

The moderator was a sighted staff member from NFB and unusually up tight. So far the sessions have all been fairly relaxed - blind folks speak out when they want to ask a question (raising your hand is fairly counter-productive) and people need to talk to get directions on where to find a seat, so strict decorum is in the background but people are relaxed about how it is actually observed. This guy wanted everyone to sit down before he started (blind folk don't care of they can't see you) and then he started to lay out the program. I was rahter hoping it would be a session of ideas, but it seemed to be a presentation of the NFB program, which involves having students take pictures standing with other people next to a cut out figure. OK it's more sophisticated than that, but not something the Xavier Society is going to get involved in.

At one point he stopped and asked if someone was talking. Someone was talking on the phone, very rude but not unusually obstructive, but it was a high school moment, with the teacher pretending she didn't know what was going on but threatening anyway. The person stopped talking and we went on. Not two minutes later, HIS phone range, he looked at it, apologized and said he had to take the call. That was when I gathered my bag and left.

From there to the meeting of the blind lawyers. I have been working with this group in trying to free up the Kindle situation and I was interested in the section on copyright law and access to electronic material. It was a very well-done presentation, but I knew absolutely everything that was presented. Sigh.

So now I'm back in the lobby, taking a quick rest before heading off to the Kurzweil presentation, a swing by the Guide Dog Association meeting, a visit to the Blind Veterans (and maybe a quick visit to the National Association to Promote the use of Braille) and then a meeting with the NY affiliate group at 9:15. And lest all this sound too exciting, remember that I have to be up and dressed and downstairs by 6:15 AM to take part in the 4 km March for Independence, which includes a rally and a torch lighting and music and dancing in the streets. I will take my camera but I can fairly well assure alland sundry there will be NO pictures of yours truly (that would be me) dancing in the street.

In theory there should be one more entry tonight. In practice, don't hold your breath. More tomorrow.