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Jul 13, 2010

"It always seems impossible until it's done." --Nelson Mandela

Leap of Faith

Susan Schaller's story, comparable to "the Miracle Worker, is still not widely known. Perhaps it's so amazing, it's hard to grasp. How can one understand what it means not to have a language at all? For a man already 27 years old, to be in such a situation was considered completely hopeless. Fortunately, Schaller didn't know the situation was considered hopeless. Instead, she followed her instincts: "One of the things that attracted me to him more than anything else- the intelligence in his eye caught my eye- but more than that, he hadn't given up. I can't imagine going twenty-seven years thinking I was stupid and watching mouths. The most frustrating thing I can imagine. He didn't know what language was. He didn't know what sound was, but he knew something was happening and he wanted to know what that something was." Here is the story of a contemporary miracle. Maybe it's just at the point of giving up where real possibility exists.