SACRAMENTO,
Calif. July 19, 2006 - In a pillow fight, 14-year-old
Ben Underwood can deliver a dead-on shot; in foosball,
he's a determined competitor; when a video game is going,
his fingers fly. And when he is on his skates, he's fearless.
For most teenagers, it's nothing remarkable. But Ben is
blind.
As CBS News correspondent John Blackstone found out, Ben
uses sound to find his way around. To walk down the street
with Ben is to be amazed at what he can see with his "ears.
Ben makes clicking sounds and while walking down a sidewalk
can even determine the difference between a fire hydrant
and a trash can.
Ben was just 2 years old when cancer claimed his eyes.
Both were surgically removed. It was a day of heartbreak
for his mother, Aquanetta Gordon.
And he woke up from that surgery and Ben said, 'Mom, I
can't see any more, I can't see any more,'" she recalls.
"And I said 'You can't use your eyes but you've got
your nose, and your ears and your mouth.'"
From that day on, Ben has used his hearing, his sense
of touch, his sense of smell to conquer a world of darkness.
And he is good: while going for a walk with Blackstone,
Ben deftly stepped around a fallen trash can on the sidewalk.
Somehow, Ben has mastered echolocation. It's the same
way dolphins get around, bouncing sound waves to figure
out where they are.
On a trip to Sea World a few weeks ago, Ben found that
he and the dolphins shared an amazing talent.
Out of the water, it becomes easy to forget that Ben is
blind, as Blackstone found out when he was beaten 5-2
in a friendly match of foosball.
Playing video games with his brother Isaiah, in the assault
of noise, Ben can figure out everything that's happening
just by listening.How does he manage to compete? "Because
they got different voices," Ben explains.
"Nobody is going to tell him that there is an impossibility
for him. 'Cause there are none," says his mom.
"This mom ought to be teaching a course on how
do you raise a kid who can't see well," says Kaiser-Permanente
ophthalmologist Dr. James Ruben.
He says Aquanetta has done exactly the right thing with
Ben: never being overprotective and never putting limits
on him. "You know, I think the real story here is
not, is not his talents, but his attitude. And attitude
is what it's really about."
Aquanetta agrees. "We have to give our kids confidence.
We give them pride. Empower him with who he is, and be
proud of who you are, no matter what!" she says.
"'There's nothing you can't do..." she
adds. "And that's the attitude, you know what I'm
saying? That's what I want to give him."
Watching him in action, it seems clear that Ben really
can do anything.
MORE
INFORMATION
This article first appeared
on CBS Early Show on July 19, 2006.
Music without words means leaving behind the mind. And leaving behind the mind is meditation.
Meditation returns you to the source. And the source of all is sound. — Kabir
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