My Annie Sullivan Moment
August 13, 2023When I was about 26 I was going with a young lady of 23 or so, Lynne, who had never ridden a bicycle, and of course she regretted it. She explained that when she was born, it was a somewhat rough forceps delivery, which damaged a nerve on the side of her head. She had only one good eye; the left eye was aimed slightly towards the outside, and it never learned to focus or converge with the right eye. The left ear as well wasn’t up to par, and so she didn’t have quite the sense of balance of most kids. Out of concern for her safety - possibly exaggerated - her parents never allowed her to ride a bicycle. We decided we had to work on this.
We took my bike out to Riverside Park in Washington Heights, New York, where I lived, and practiced. It wasn’t easy, as Lynne wasn’t very sure of herself, and of course learning such a thing at that age is harder than when you’re a little kid. She got on the bike and held the handlebars; I pushed, holding the back of the saddle, as she pedaled. Several times she got moving a few paces but lost her balance and had to catch herself with her feet. We kept trying, although I started to wonder whether this would ever work. But finally, after an hour or more of this, I pushed again and she just took off! I ran after her shouting, but I couldn’t keep up. She must have gone a couple of hundred yards, when she finally came to a stop - not because she had to, but just because she was overcome with excitement. I caught up with her and we both burst into tears and embraced. It was truly a Helen Keller moment, where Lynne was Helen and I was Annie Sullivan. Eventually we came back to ourselves, and she had a few more runs, turning too, with no real problems, while I just watched, so happy and proud. We were both so happy and proud. What a day that was. I can’t even recall this episode without getting all worked up, many years later.
My title will be obvious if you know the story of Helen Keller, from back in the late 1800s, who at 19 months of age was afflicted with a severe meningitis, which left her deaf and blind. Dumb as well, as she hadn’t yet learned to speak. Annie Sullivan, a very special and determined teacher, taught Helen - with great difficulty, as Helen was anything but docile - that words stand for things, and then taught her sign language, spelling with the fingers. Keller thereafter had a distinguished and multifaceted career. There was a great film made of their story, Arthur Penn’s ”The Miracle Worker”. The breakthrough moment was at the water pump, when Helen finally understood what words are, and was able to crudely pronounce “water”. Google ”Miracle Worker water pump scene”. (If this doesn’t move you, there’s something profoundly wrong with you, an utter lack of empathy.) Never mind the Disney remake, go for the original B&W with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke. Here’s a good link, from The Attic, with lots of great old photographs, besides the clip of the water pump scene:
https://www.theattic.space/home-page-blogs/2018/11/29/helen-kellers-moment
Of these photos (all cribbed from The Attic, many thanks), the first is of Anne Sullivan as a young woman, the second is of Anne and Helen Keller, and the last is of Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker.
The drawing above deserves some explanation. The Atlanticus Folio is a volume of drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, and the drawing was found within it, evidently a later addition, or drawn on the reverse of one of Leonardo’s own sheets. Still, some scholars have asserted that it is Leonardo’s own drawing of a bicycle, which would then be added to the list of his many inventions. This notion has been rejected unequivocally by other historians. The historical and documentary arguments for and against are complicated, and I won’t go into them here. My opinion is that this could not possibly be by Leonardo da Vinci, and that those who say that it is are attempting to make some sort of a splash for its own sake. They may be acting in bad faith as well. Above all it seems that they have no eyes, no capacity for judging on the basis of style. I could draw as well when I was in fourth grade, and I am no Leonardo. I am certain that Leonardo, even as a child, could have done far better. The bicycle itself resembles some early bike designs of the 1800s. Aside from the bike, observe the crudeness of the profile of a person at the bottom, or at the assembly at right, its subject unrecognizable to me, which looks like the work of a child of four or five. Such child probably had a definite idea of what it was, as small children generally do not draw abstraction. How many parents and teachers have found themselves saying “That’s lovely!” when they don’t recognize the subject, and have had to elicit the answer without asking “What is it?”.
Here is a set of photos of novelty bikes and public sculptures using bikes.
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