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A Celebration of Thirty Years of Bliss in Canada.
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BCI Celebrates Thirty Years of Bliss in Canada.From Judy Seligman-Wine, Israel
Travels with Charlie
In 1971, in my new position as a speech language pathologist at the Ontario Crippled Children's Center (now the Bloorview Macmillan Centre), I got talked into being a part of a group of people who were looking for a means of communication for children at the center who were non-speaking. Reluctantly I agreed to take part in this as I had so many other responsibilities and did not know how I could add yet one more. It was suggested "just meet with them and see what they want". From this "just meeting" have come 30 action-packed years of working with some of the most dedicated and marvelous people; of laughing, crying and arguing with these people as we develop new Blissymbols and think of ways of introducing them to the people for whom they are intended the Bliss Users; and of sharing in the joys and sorrows of discovering the strength of communication together with these users.
In 1973 I decided to pick up my roots I was on my way to Australia to visit a friend I thought I might also drop in on Charlie (Bliss) when I got waylaid in Israel and have been here ever since. I decided that what I had to offer my newly adopted country was my belief in the abilities of young non-speaking children to communicate using Blissymbols. And so began the journey of a lifetime. I remember my youngest daughter, upon hearing that! had brought Blissymbols to Israel, asking how I had managed to carry them all on the airplane. Another anecdote: I remember when a well-known local doctor right at the beginning said tome "so you will work with all the children in Israel who need Blissymbols; it will take a year and then what?" It has been a long year! There were many decisions to make; the Hebrew language is written from right to left and, after much discussion and deliberation with the people in Canada and others from different parts of the world, it was decided to write the Blissymbols being used in Israel from right to left to correspond to the written language. While I am sure this was the correct decision from a literacy point of view, it sure complicated life for us with the advent of the computer age! Furthermore Charles Bliss did not react favorably to this decision as he still viewed Semantography as an international language in the same way as is physics and chemistry. Shortly after moving here my newly acquired seven year old son wrote Charles a letter using Blissymbols in the Hebrew direction telling him how proud he was of his new mother because of her work and what a smart man he (Charles) must be for having developed this language. From having written me a most moving love letter while I was still in Toronto, I now received a note indicating Charles' displeasure and disappointment in me sadly he had missed the point of his symbols being a truly international language.
And so my travels began to Sicily, Amsterdam, Milan, the UK, back and forth to Toronto, Hungary, Prague, Disneyland, - not to forget the two week Blissymbol Development Workshop which was held in Jerusalem in 1989 - and so many other places all safely stored in my memory always carrying those Blissymbols with me working with the best people in the world and communicating!! I feel a very large responsibility in now holding the position of the first coordinator of the international committees within the BC! structure and! feel very honored and lucky to be able to be here at this 30th anniversary celebration. In this time of trouble and strife throughout the world, let us continue to promote interaction and mutual understanding in our own world of Blissymbolics.
P.S. It should be noted that together with a new family in Israel! acquired a new name - "Charlie" (no connection with Bliss, I assure you) - to which I still respond, but only within the family.
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