From a secret failure of vision to a triumph of body and will
- From: "BlindNews Mailing List" <BlindNews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <BlindNews@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2007 07:53:48 -0400
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL, USA
Saturday, October 06, 2007
From a secret failure of vision to a triumph of body and will
By CHRIS ANDERSON chris.anderson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
For decades, he never let on that he was blind. Then he started running -- and
stopped hiding.
PUNTA GORDA -- In a sky full of darkness, a man searches for light.
Charles Plaskon, a 64-year-old retired teacher who painstakingly hid a secret
for more than five decades, stands alone on a street at 2 a.m. He tilts his
head back and rotates his neck and moves his eyes until he spots the moon.
The glow appears only for a second, like the headlights of a turning car, and
then is gone. But that moment is so exciting to him, so moving, so personal,
that it is almost like a heavenly experience. Even if the sliver of light he
sees is not the moon at all, but merely a streetlight.
Plaskon was born with a hereditary condition called macular degeneration. Aside
from a couple of tiny "live" spots in his peripheral vision, he sees nothing,
not even things as majestic as the moon.
Astoundingly, he hid his blindness for 55 years from virtually everyone. How is
that possible? He looks you squarely in the eye and answers with conviction.
"I'm good," he says. "I've fooled the best of them."
He taught for 32 years, in subjects including industrial arts, and no one ever
saw him, hours before class, measuring the steps to each student's desk. He
went to college and no one ever heard his wife recording his textbooks on tape.
He walked down hallways and pretended to be buried in a book so he would not
offend anyone who waved to him.
"Only very, very few close friends had any idea of what was going on," said
Plaskon's wife, Betty. Because he could do so much, very few people knew how
severe it was.
"You would not know when he looks you in the eye he sees nothing. He had to
teach himself that."
Then, maybe eight years ago, something freed him from the burden he carried.
Something made him stop hiding in plain sight of the world. Even though the
only exercise he had as a child was shoveling coal into the furnace of his New
Jersey home, he began running.
He could not believe how good running made him feel. And if he could inspire
others to feel this good, then why keep hiding his disability?
First it was 5K races, then 10Ks, and then half-marathons. He always tried to
stay behind any woman with a swinging ponytail so he would not get lost. Soon
it was full marathons.
And soon he was telling people at the grocery store he was visually impaired
and was asking for help finding things. It felt so good to ask where the
bananas were.
He completed the New York City Marathon. He completed Boston. He completed
three marathons in three European cities in three weeks.
He completed 11 marathons in total, but that was not enough. So he tackled two
Iranian triathlons, and he enjoyed the challenge so much that he is about to
compete in the most prestigious of them all: the Ford Ironman World
Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on Oct. 13.
The triathlon consists of a 2.4-mile swim in the Pacific Ocean, a 112-mile
bicycle segment through scorching lava fields and then a 26.2-mile run to the
finish line.
ABC television will follow his pursuit and he hopes to finish in the allotted
17 hours.
He has already appeared in "Victory over Darkness," a documentary about five
blind athletes that may be shown at the Sundance Film Festival.
Plaskon will compete in Hawaii with guide Matt Miller, who founded the
C-Different Foundation, which helps visually impaired athletes compete in
athletic events. Plaskon will be tethered to Miller by a bungee cord for the
swim and run portions and they will ride together on a tandem bicycle.
Betty Plaskon is going to Hawaii along with the couple's three children, their
spouses, and the Plaskons' three grandchildren. Charles and Betty Plaskon have
been married for more than 35 years and have known each other their whole lives.
"He's able to do it, he finds a way," Betty said. "He just has this
determination to draw from within.
"He has that ability to not say, 'Poor me, look what I can't do. Instead it's,
'Gee, look what I can do.'"
Almost every moment of Plaskon's life these days is consumed with Hawaii. At
his peak in training, he will run 50 miles a week, ride maybe 180 miles and
swim a couple of hours.
His running is done on a 3.5-mile loop around a golf course near his Punta
Gorda home. And he runs by himself, just never on garbage day ... too many
green obstacles with lids on them.
He no longer wants to hide from anyone, so he always waves when he thinks he is
near a person -- even though sometimes he is greeting mailboxes and trees.
"I want to make the most of every day, I really do," Plaskon said. "That's why
I pick up these things that are tremendous challenges.
"A lot of people I know my age, all they can talk about is what they used to
do. I want to know: 'What are you doing now and what are you going to do next
week? What's on the horizon?' We're not dead yet."
When Plaskon was a child, his father convinced him he had normal sight. It was
everyone else who had too much.
"My father wouldn't let me use vision loss as an excuse for not doing
something," he said.
There was no Americans with Disabilities Act then -- that came in 1990 -- and
if he was ever going to be successful, he was going to have to adapt to the
world.
He adapted.
"For a good portion of my life, I hid my handicap because it just wasn't
accepted," Plaskon said. "They didn't know what the disease was. The working
world didn't know how to handle it."
Though he kept it a "strict, strict secret," people have known along the way.
But only a few. Trusted classmates. close friends and colleagues. Employers.
A few close friends helped him tremendously during school. They were his eyes
while he concentrated on being a very astute listener. Still, it was extremely
difficult. He never attended schools for the blind and never learned to read in
Braille.
"My father kept saying, 'You can do it,'" Plaskon said. "I kept saying to
myself, 'I can't see, what do you mean, I can do it?' I just had to figure out
a way."
His eyes do not hint at a disability and he maneuvers through his home with
ease because all of the furniture is strategically placed and the steps are
marked off in his head. There are no rugs on the tiled floors so he will not
slip.
"Charlie inspires me every day because I know what he has to go through," said
Betty Plaskon. "Everyone says, 'Oh, he can do so much,' but they don't see the
times there are difficulties."
Though he had virtually no sight at birth, the little vision he started with
has slowly deteriorated. He recently went to a doctor and was told that his
eyes are completely nonfunctional. Officially, his eyesight is at 20/900. He
accepts that. His only wish is that it doesn't get worse.
After all, he can still occasionally see those momentary flashes of light in
the sky if he turns his head just right.
If he could have his sight back for one day, would he take it?
"No, because then I'd be right back where I am now," he said. "They kept asking
me in the documentary, 'How does it feel? How does it feel?' It really feels
awful not to be able to see. There are certain things I want to see.
"But I could die with the amount of vision I have right now and not feel
cheated. Look what I've been able to do. Look at how far I've gotten."
He has gotten all the way to Hawaii, an island paradise known for its beauty,
though he has no vision of it, even in his mind.
But that's OK. He is there to race.
The triathlon starts at 7 a.m., and it will be nightfall before he gets
anywhere close to the end.
His family will be there eagerly waiting for him to appear.
And then, under the same moon that brings him so much comfort, they will see
him cross the finish line, a beacon in the darkness, a man who has finally
stopped running.
Last modified: October 06. 2007 4:27AM
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20071006/NEWS/710060325/1006/SPORTS
BlindNews Mailing List
Subscribe: BlindNews-Request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" as subject
Unsubscribe: BlindNews-Request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" as subject
Moderator: BlindNews-Moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Archive: http://GeoffAndWen.com/blind
RSS: http://GeoffAndWen.com/BlindNewsRSS.asp
More information about RSS feeds will be published shortly.
Other related posts:
- » From a secret failure of vision to a triumph of body and will
