During a Wednesday night service at the Catholic church, I noticed a new leprosy patient. He sat in a pew to the right of Stan and Sarah. I'd never seen him before, but that wasn't unusual. Patients from around the world came to Carville for special surgeries and treatments. The man could have been Asian or Indian, or maybe from South America. I couldn't tell for sure, but he was performing a ritual I'd never seen. He put his Bible to his chin and pressed it against his mouth, like he was licking the pages...From the book I've just finished reading - In the Sanctuary of Outcasts, by Neil White (William Morrow/Harper Collins, 2009). The author spent about a year in the federal minimum security facility at Carville, Louisiana - a facility which also served as a home for a colony of lepers, some of whom had been sequestered there for the fifty years or more.
When the man's face wasn't pressed against his Bible, he stared up and rocked back and forth. Then he would put his tongue back against the pages.
During Comunion, standing at the altar, I got a closer look. He was blind. Like most of the victims of leprosy, the man's hands were anesthetized, so Braille was of no use. His fingertips could not feel the small bumps on the page. But he had found a new way. He was reading Braille with his tongue.
Re lingual perception of Braille, see this link about technology being developed to transmit "visual" data to the blind by way of the tongue. Also re Braille, see this post, and the one below this about the Braille Without Borders program.
I find that very sad, and they ask me why I don't believe in God!!!
ReplyDeleteLe Loup.
"Carville, Louisiana - a facility which also served as a home for a colony of lepers,"
ReplyDeleteA difficult situation that people, in general, would not understand.
I did not realise that the "facility" was a matter of public knowledge.
Maybe this explains why it was moved in the dark of night.
My curiosity got the better of me and I searched out more information, in an arena of curiosity best known to cats.
ReplyDeleteThe author was himself a federal prisoner for stealing money to keep his publishing business afloat.
Also written 15 years after his release from Carville.
The time frame makes sense now. I am only left wondering it the author either has or takes any credit to the moving of the facility.
No, I've read the book, and he doesn't take any "credit" re the move of the facility.
ReplyDelete