Good morning, Netizens...

I once wrote about an empoverished school for the blind in Los Angeles, a tale which eventually became part of my Christmas Stories Collection. In all, back in the 60's I spent over two weeks interviewing blind children about a street woman who befriended them, played music for them in the parks and eventually worked her way up out of the ranks of the homeless.

Yesterday when I saw this picture, shot by Richard Drew for the Associated Press, I knew I had to include that as part of my examination of Christmas 2009. The girl, Morgan Cohen, is blind from birth, and as all blind children do, relies heavily upon her other senses, ie., touch, smell and sound, to better understand the world around her.

So when Santa leaned closely enough for her to do so, she naturally had to tug on his fluffy white beard to better understand him, perhaps even to see what he might say or do. But for a brief interval in time, Santa brought some of the magic of Christmas to her.

Dave

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