Helen Keller's Experience of Beethoven's Ninth 25MAR14

This is just a beautiful story about Helen Keller. Enjoy, and for more of the joy the Ninth brings see The 'Ode To Joy' As A Call To Action & Beethoven Ninth (9th) Film; Following The Ninth & Beethoven's Famous 4 Notes: Truly Revolutionary Music 14JAN14&19NOV12 http://bucknacktssordidtawdryblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-ode-to-joy-as-call-to-action.html

By Janos Gereben

Helen Keller at the radio

In March of 1924 Helen Keller wrote the following letter to the New York Symphony Orchestra describing how she listened to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony over the radio. The source is The Auricle, Vol. II, No. 6, March 1924. American Foundation for the Blind, Helen Keller Archives.

Dear Friends: I have the joy of being able to tell you that, though deaf and blind, I spent a glorious hour last night listening over the radio to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. I do not mean to say that I heard the music in the sense that other people heard it; and I do not know whether I can make you understand how it was possible for me to derive pleasure from the symphony.
It was a great surprise to myself. I had been reading in my magazine for the blind of the happiness that the radio was bringing to the sightless everywhere. I was delighted to know that the blind had gained a new source of enjoyment; but I did not dream that I could have any part in their joy.
Last night, when the family was listening to your wonderful rendering of the immortal symphony someone suggested that I put my hand on the receiver and see if I could get any of the vibrations. He unscrewed the cap, and I lightly touched the sensitive diaphragm.
What was my amazement to discover that I could feel, not only the vibration, but also the impassioned rhythm, the throb and the urge of the music! The intertwined and intermingling vibrations from different instruments enchanted me. I could actually distinguish the cornets, the roil of the drums, deep-toned violas and violins singing in exquisite unison. How the lovely speech of the violins flowed and plowed over the deepest tones of the other instruments! When the human voices leaped up thrilling from the surge of harmony, I recognized them instantly as voices more ecstatic, upcurving swift and flame-like, until my heart almost stood still.
The women's voices seemed an embodiment of all the angelic voices rushing in a harmonious flood of beautiful and inspiring sound. The great chorus throbbed against my fingers with poignant pause and flow. Then all the instruments and voices together burst forth an ocean of heavenly vibration and died away like winds when the atom is spent, ending in a delicate shower of sweet notes.
Of course this was not hearing, but I do know that the tones and harmonies conveyed to me moods of great beauty and majesty. I also sense, or thought I did, the tender sounds of nature that sing into my hand-swaying reeds and winds and the murmur of streams. I have never been so enraptured before by a multitude of tone-vibrations.
As I listened, with darkness and melody, shadow and sound filling all the room, I could not help remembering that the great composer who poured forth such a flood of sweetness into the world was deaf like myself. I marveled at the power of his quenchless spirit by which out of his pain he wrought such joy for others and there I sat, feeling with my hand the magnificent symphony which broke like a sea upon the silent shores of his soul and mine.

Included in: Music News: March 25, 2014
Janos Gereben appreciates news tips, corrections, and words of encouragement at janosg@gmail.com.
https://www.sfcv.org/article/helen-kellers-experience-of-beethovens-ninth

TOMS Announces Eyewear As New 'One For One' Product

A beautiful example of a person in the business community who isn't driven by greed, who doesn't feel they are entitled to a greater share of their companies profits but instead knows there is more to life than personal financial wealth. God Bless....
After years of proving that combining style and charitable causes can make a successful business plan, TOMS has decided to expand its philanthropic venture and offer a new product: eyewear.
Blake Mycoskie, founder and CEO of TOMS, spoke in front of a crowd at the California Heritage Museum near Santa Monica, Calif. He said that now, four years after the start of his company in his Venice Beach apartment, was the time to finally expand his "One for One" business model beyond shoes.
Mycoskie had been creating buzz for the launch by carrying a large tube-shaped "mystery box" to speaking events, such as his recent appearance at SXSW.
Just before opening it, he told the crowd in Santa Monica, "What's actually inside this box is not near as important as what it represents."
What was in the box was a presentation of his new eyewear line. Made in Italy, the $135 sunglasses come in three basic styles: Classic 101 (similar to Ray-Ban Wayfarers), Classic 201 (large and round), and Classic 301 (similar to aviators).
Each come in a variety of colors, however they all have one signature design detail. The temples of each pair of sunglasses features a hand-painted color and white stripe. He says it signifies the bond between consumer and person being helped, with the white stripe representing TOMS as bridging the two together.
Just as his company's shoe sales directly funded help to people in need, his eyewear will do the same. Partnered with the Seva Foundation, each sale will directly help the visual health of a person in a developing country.
In a statement, Mycoskie says:

"Sight is a fundamental need. The loss of sight has a dramatic impact on a person's life -- and on his or her family and community. We're so excited to help more people in need and for TOMS to give in a whole new way."

At the Santa Monica event, Mycoskie introduced the following short video that shows his experience working with Seva in Nepal.
According to TOMS, the company has given over one million pairs of shoes to children around the world. But now, as they say in the video, its organizers can't wait to give eyesight to a millionth person.
WATCH:

Blake Mycoskie sat down with HuffPost to discuss the "relief" of finally launching his new product.
He says it all started in 2007 when he returned from a shoe drop in Argentina. Mycoskie immediately saw another area of need that he could help: eyesight.
Mycoskie knew his "One for One" business model was working, however his fledgling company had only just begun and he needed more time.
"We really needed to make sure that we had the infrastructure in place with TOMS Shoes and also, I believe, the community," he says.
Once TOMS was up and running with a loyal fan base, he started planning for the next product, but it was kept hush-hush as a pet project.
"I had a whole little team outside of TOMS... like I had a secret wife or something," he says, laughing. "A mistress, this has been my mistress."
Just as he had to learn the business of shoes from scratch, he committed himself to learn everything about the business of sight -- both in marketing a new product and in choosing a way to invest in the visual health of people in need effectively.
Some of his partners and mentors expressed some concern about starting a new venture so soon after the success of his first, but he knew he had to expand his goals.
"The biggest risk would not be doing something else to help people," he says.
So, Mycoskie spent the past four years building relationships and perfecting his product. After shopping around, he decided to partner with the Seva Foundation. He describes the foundation's organizers as "absolute pros," as they've been in the business of helping people get their eyesight back for over 30 years.
"They have taught me so much," he says. "I've been with them in Nepal, I've sat in the operating room as they've done surgeries. They've really taken me under their wing... They will be critical part for the future of TOMS because, unlike shoes, it's much more complicated and we have to have a great partner like that."
He says the organization helped him learn about three main ways to help: through operations that correct workplace accidents, through prescription glasses, and through cataract surgery. And proceeds from the sale of his sunglasses will help in those specific avenues.
At his Santa Monica appearance, Mycoskie announced: "We're no longer a shoe company, and we're not even an eyewear company. We are the 'One for One' company."
However, his future plans remain as much a mystery to him as to his public.
"I don't know what I can do that could top this," he says. "There will be other 'One for One' products. I don't know when, and I sure don't know what because it's going to have to be as magnificent as this."
So, for now, he wants to focus on the product of four years' research and development -- and encourage others to join in and do some good.
"I think that the fact is that there are 284 million people in the world who are blind or visually impaired, and it's relatively simple to change that," he says. "And when you change that, you change their life -- major."
TOMS sunglasses can be purchased in a new section of the organization's website dedicated to eyewear, or you can get involved in future TOMS volunteer opportunities by following the Impact links below.

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