An American hero died yesterday. Her last name may be familiar, as that of the first American to orbit the Earth and the first astronaut turned Senator, but she was known as Annie Glenn.
As the wife of the other hero, she lived in the spotlight, with media always nearby in search of a story, but hers was hard to tell. If you don’t know, Annie Glenn stuttered.
Her story is briefly told in today’s New York Times. A life-long stammerer, she plumbed the depths of the mind with her will and learned to excel in an era before handicaps were at least nominally accepted. Her accomplishments and contributions are many, but overcoming her handicap ranks, to me, with those of her husband, John.
It’s hard to fully comprehend what some must overcome to live in a world we take for granted without walking at least a few steps in their shoes. With that in mind, I wrote this piece some time ago. This is in Annie’s honor, whose name belong among those mentioned.
Making Light
Beethoven put joy to music though we know he was
deaf to that symphony we hold in awe
Monet painted his lilies from memory
in the dying of the light with his own sight fading
Da Vinci wrote in reverse because he was dyslectic
a word I can’t spell in either direction
Milton wrote Paradise Lost while blind and penniless
selling it for five pounds and left to explain why it did not rhyme
Yogi was wise beyond simplicity
a philosopher with pith in the subtlest of games
Edison first great invention was the phonograph
though I doubt you knew he was near deaf since childhood
James Earl Jones – the voice of God himself – and
Marilyn Monroe – Helen incarnate – both stuttered
Albert Einstein too was dyslectic and
Then there was Stephen Hawking
The list is as endless
as their achievements humbling
No one it seems is perfect
but my the beauty of that spark within
