that which does not kill us

Feast of the Triumph of the Cross

While reading the inspiring story of Hellen Keller, I am reminded of the quote “the cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek” by Joseph Campbell. We have fears in our lives and one of our greatest fears is that of the unknown. It is said that many would choose to enter a tiger’s lair rather than enter a dark cave. But it is in the dark caves of our lives that we find our treasures.

“When Hellen Keller was born on June 27, 1880, she was like any other normal baby. Her parents, landowners in post Civil War Alabama were very proud of her. In their eyes, she was after all their intelligent child who could speak “How do you do?” at 6 months old.

However, that started to change after she contracted scarlet fever at 19 months in February 1882. When she was rescued from the brink of death, little Hellen could no longer respond to the dinner bell rings or flashes of her mother’s hand in front of her eyes. It thus became apparent that her illness has left her to be blind and deaf. And as she became further withdrawn into her own silent world, she began to lose her speech as well. Losing her ability to communicate with her parents reduced Hellen Keller to a state of frustration and anger. She became a difficult child, throwing dishes and lamps on the floor, yelling and throwing tantrums. That behaviour gradually worsened as her parents became too soft hearted and refused to discipline her.

Relatives thought she should be sent to a mental institution. Despite her relatives’ claims, Hellen Keller displayed abilities that seemed to suggest that she was sound. By the time she was 5, she could use more than 60 customized hand gestures to communicate meanings of “Mother”, “Father” etc. Believing that her child could be educated, her mother brought Hellen to Alexander Graham Bell on the advice from a specialist doctor. Alexander was working with the deaf at that time. It was through his contacts that a private tutor was eventually engaged to coach Helen.

She was none other than Anne Sullivan. At that time, Anne Sullivan had just graduated from the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston and the offer to be Hellen’s private tutor was like rain in the drought as she had been trying to find work for a long time. Suffering from poor eyesight herself, Anne saw in Hellen what others couldn’t. To her, she was like just any other girl. Anne tried to control Hellen’s bad behaviour and correct her table manners. Instead of allowing her to grab food with her bare hands off other people’s plates, she would train her to eat with a fork sitting down. She would also make her brush her own hair. Those attempts often led to more protests and tantrums from the young girl, causing Anne to lose her 2 front teeth in the first week. At the same time, Anne was teaching Helen finger spelling by writing individual letters onto the girl’s hand. Although Helen could repeat these hand movements, she didn’t really understood what those meant.

One fine day in April 5, 1887, all that changed. Anne led Hellen down the path to the well house, held her hand under a running water pump and wrote the words w-a-t-e-r on her palms. As the cool stream gushed against her hands, Hellen felt a sudden awareness as the mystery of language unveiled in her new founded consciousness. Anne was immediately asked to spell the name of the pump and many other objects Hellen touched in the path, including her own name. By the end of the day, Helen had already learned 30 new words. 3 months later, she picked up 300. As Anne and Hellen’s bond grew, friends, family and even neighbours were greatly astonished at the change in that young lady, calling it a “miracle”. It was not long before news of her accomplishments spread across the country that she got to visit many famous personalities such as Alexander Graham Bell (again) and president Grover Cleveland. By the time she was 12, Hellen was world famous, with renowned people such as England’s Queen Victoria, Mark Twain, Queen Olga of Greece etc openly declaring their admiration for the young lady’s spirit. By 1890, she was living at Perkins Institute, being taught by Anne and spending several winters. During her stay there, she learned ferociously and picked up knowledge not only pertaining to her own language but also in Greek, French and Latin. She also aspired to attend college and intentionally did her high school education in Cambridge so that she could be physically near her dream school, Radcliffe, the sister college to Harvard. Despite her disabilities, Hellen dared herself to take up a lot of adventures such as horse riding, cycling, swimming and even camping that any other able bodied person would take up. She expressed controversial political thoughts in her essays, went up to the vaudeville stage to demonstrate her first understanding of the word ‘water’ and answer questions fielded by the audience on her struggles, with Anne acting as her interpreter.

In 1918, after she moved to Forest Hills in New York, Helen started on her extensive fund raising campaigns for the American Foundation for the Blind using her new home as a base. In the process she traveled around the world, visiting many famous personalities such as the Emperor of Japan, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill etc, effectively helping to raise public awareness on the issues faced by the disabled. Anne died in 1936. To commemorate the death of her friend, Hellen started to work on Anne’s biography, only to lose it to a fire in 1946 when it was almost completed. She rewrote it again and in 1955, published “Teacher : Anne Sullivan Macy”. On June 1, 1968, after Hellen died peacefully in her sleep, she was buried next to Anne at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.”

Hellen Keller had a most frightful dark cave in life, one she would not have entered if given the choice, but since it was the lot given her in life, she chose to play with the hand dealt her and because of that she won, even with odds stacked against her, giving her the treasure that many of us also seek and desire: self-actualization.

I recall the quote “If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars” by Rabindranath Tagore. Instead of running away from dark caves and heavy crosses, why not try to enter and embrace them? Yes, we may be filled with fear and trembling, but may we also hold on to the grace of awe and fascination for therein lies the promise of the greatest treasure - the Light to guide us, the One who will save us. Instead of sulking and crying because we may feel that life is so unfair, let us not let our tears get in the way of beholding Him who holds us in the palm of His crucified hands.

It is true what the world, through Friedrich Nietzsche, tells us that, “that which does not kill us makes us stronger.” It is even more true what we affirm with our faith that, that which kills us will make us the strongest. It is in embracing the cross, in dying to ourselves, that we find the greatest treasure, He who gives life.