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course. Even though we never did anything related to giving speeches, I found the course to be truly enlightening. Because of it, I was able to learn about new approaches and options for Life%u2014including my own. My mind opened to expect the unexpected, and I learned to seek and find meaning and purpose.At one point, while I was home during a semester break from college, my eyes were examined for the first time. The appointment was probably scheduled because my parents had both just gotten reading glasses. I didn%u2019t expect to hear that anything was amiss, so I was flabbergasted to be told that I was not seeing in three dimensions%u2014that I had absolutely no depth perception. The doctor asked me to walk around the room, then pronounced that I was right-handed, but left-eyed and left-footed. This, he implied, was due to a brain dysfunction of some type. After the exam, he explained that every patient he had ever seen with my condition was brought to him while they were in early elementary school because they could not read. %u201cHow have you gotten by for so long without reading?%u201d he asked. When I told him I could read just fine, he looked stunned and said, %u201cHow?%u201d I didn%u2019t know what to say. I repeated that I could read okay and, in fact, I was on the Dean%u2019s List. He then said he could understand how I could do well in my major%u2014Art%u2014but I must be having trouble in my other courses. When I told him, %u201cI get good grades in all types of courses,%u201d he just shook his head and said, %u201cBased on what I%u2019ve seen over the years, you are the exception to the rule.%u201dHe then went on to state that I probably had difficulty counting and doing simple arithmetic. On that score, he was certainly correct. Lastly, he pronounced, %u201cI%u2019ll bet you have difficulty knowing your right from your left.%u201d Correct again. He seemed somewhat vindicated by these last responses.The doctor%u2019s recommendations to me included a series of in-office therapy treatments with a specialized machine I had to stare into, at-home eye exercises, and wearing an eye patch. He said after I had aligned the vision in both eyes, I would be able to see in 3-D. But he cautioned that, at first, it could make me faint and nauseous. Unfortunately, after his recommended therapies, I only saw in three dimensions for a minute or two, about three times a year. But, as he predicted, whenever it happened, I always felt queasy.Long after my last visit to that eye doctor, I wondered if he would have had any thoughts about my piano and organ playing, which I enjoyed very much. I had originally taught myself so, when I started lessons, my teacher gave me music meant for a more advanced student. Which meant that I missed all the basics of how to do proper fingering, what musical terms meant, and learning about keys and scales. Plus, I could not count notes. What I did was listen to my teacher play the musical score I was assigned to learn, and instantly memorize how it sounded. I just used the musical notation on the printed pages to show me where on the keyboard my fingers should be. Neither my piano teacher nor, later, my organ teacher (who played the organs for some of Detroit%u2019s major league teams) ever caught on. When I decided to quit taking lessons, I told my mother and organ teacher about my limitations and how I coped. Neither believed me and kept telling me I had talent and promise. However, I knew I Nude. Charcoal on paper. 1969 was unlikely to play any better than I already did.Senior year at Western. 1972