Okay, so now it's the style show, and participants are lined up with their dogs, waiting their turn.  Donna Shalala goes ahead of me down the runway, and I walk up the steps, and I stand there for a minute, thinking "You must be crazy, Virginia,"    and I tell my dog, "forward."  I'd already counted that I had something like eighty steps to walk, so when we got to eighty, I told Gibney to turn, and as I made the turn, Doug, I was so thrilled that I hadn't stepped off the stage that I raised my hand and gave the audience a big smile and a wave, and I got a standing ovation.  That Sunday morning, there we were - my dog and I - on  the front page of the newspaper, so the Miami Lighthouse got some great publicity, and I proved to myself, once again, that I could get out there and do it, even if people told me I couldn't.
                                                                                  Virginia Jacko in The Blind Visionary

In my keynote address at the Bristol Mayors’ Award of Distinction ceremony at the lovely Paramount Theater in Bristol, Tennessee on May 1, “Lessons From The Blind Visionary,” I told real-life stories from The Blind Visionary to illustrate three of the lessons that Virginia Jacko and I discuss in Part Three of our book:  Reach Out Aggressively; Don’t Let Fear Win; and Keep Things in Perspective.  Judging from the audience reaction and from what people who approached me during the reception after the keynote said, they were very moved by one of my favorite stories from our book, which I told to illustrate how Virginia strives not to let fear limit what she is able to achieve personally and professionally.  Of course, it took tremendous courage for Virginia to start all over again as a vocational rehabilitation student at the Miami Lighthouse after she couldn’t continue working at Purdue University because of losing her vision, but since then she’s had countless opportunities to look fear in the face and defeat it as CEO of the Lighthouse.

The story I told in my Bristol keynote relates to the annual Humane Society fashion show in Miami – a high-profile fund-raising event involving many very prominent Miamians every year.  When Virginia expressed an interest in representing the Lighthouse at the event, she was strongly discouraged from participating because of the long, narrow runway people had to walk along with their pets and the long fall to the main floor – obviously a risky proposition for a blind person with a guide dog.  But Virginia, as is her wont, insisted on being included, and as you know from the above quote from The Blind Visionary, the effort paid real dividends for the Lighthouse, as well as being a tremendously life-affirming experience for Virginia.  By the way, my new video clip from the Bristol keynote describes Virginia’s triumph at the fashion show.  It’s at: http://youtu.be/EXaDUpdLUZk.

That night in my hotel room, after the keynote, I was thinking about the tremendous harm that fear can do in keeping people from realizing their potential, not only professionally but personally.  Fear can be an ally, without question, when you’re facing a real threat – say. a charging grizzly.  But far too often, fear has to do with emotional, rather than physical, threats – with such things as fear of failure or embarrassment.  These days, when I’m feeling nervous about doing something new that’s outside my comfort zone, thinking of my blind friend and colleague Virginia Jacko walking down that long, high runway really helps me get over the hump.