Off The Beaten Path Episode Six -Lonnie Bedwell

I am so excited to share this interview with Lonnie Bedwell with you!

Lonnie Bedwell is a blind veteran, and extreme sports athlete. He shares his empowering story of tragically losing his eyesight to gaining vision ultimately being named a National Geographic adventurer of the Year. From accident to recovery, his journey led him to the first blind kayaking descent through the Grand Canyon and to the summit of Mount Everest.

Lonnie shares his life journey, including his experiences as a blind builder and mountaineer. We talk about Lonnie's personal philosophy of focusing on his unique gifts, and the importance of collaboration and mutual support. Lonnie also shared his plans for future adventures and the importance of acknowledging adversity for personal growth.

Lonnie's inspiring story is sure to touch your heart and motivate you to seize life to its fullest!

Connect with Lonnie on Social

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reallonniebedwell
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lonnie.r.bedwell/?hl=en

Thanks for listening! Off The Beaten Path is brought to you by Dave Epstein and Awarewolf Gear, makers of the All Terrain Cane and the Urban Xplorer. To purchase a cane or find out more visit https://awarewolfgear.com/awghome

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Transcript

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Dave Epstein: Everyone, Sedona, Dave here, and I want to welcome you to off the beaten path.

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Dave Epstein: I've been dying to introduce my next guest to you a super powerhouse. He's a blind veteran and extreme sports athlete. Today's guest shares his empowering story of tragically losing his eyesight to gaining vision, ultimately being named National Geographics, Adventurer of the year. From accident to recovery. His journey led him to the 1st blind, kayaking descent through the Grand Canyon

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Dave Epstein: and

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Dave Epstein: wait for it.

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Dave Epstein: summiting Mount Everest.

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Dave Epstein: Lonnie Bedwell. Welcome aboard.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Thank you. Appreciate you having me.

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Dave Epstein: I've been dying to get you on board, really wanting to pick your brain everything that makes you you everything that

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Dave Epstein: makes Lonnie great!

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Dave Epstein: Well, I'm dying, though. How.

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Lonnie Bedwell: If you want to pick my brain, you're in trouble.

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Dave Epstein: Yeah, I know right? I usually say Slim Pickens, but that's me. That's me. Now, Lonnie, you've you've seen. You've taken your world to some amazing places reading up on your your kayaking adventures down into the Grand Canyon summiting Everest.

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Dave Epstein: I I know none of this happened overnight, and you've got an amazing background and amazing story. Let's get into your background and then hop off the beaten path from there. So tell us about Lonnie.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Lonnie lives in

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Lonnie Bedwell: Little town called Duggar, Indiana. That's my address, now

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Lonnie Bedwell: raised about 6 miles from here, in a little town of Pleasantville population

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Lonnie Bedwell: 75, I think it is, and I joined the joined the military, wrote submarines for 9 years. Got off of active duty.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and then

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Lonnie Bedwell: rolled over into the Army National Guard, and while I was working at a power plant, and 3 years to the day after I got off of active duties when I lost my sight and hunting accident.

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Lonnie Bedwell: I have 3 beautiful daughters.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Courtney Ashley Taylor, who are all married now. There were 5, 9, 11 when I got shot they're all married, 2 kids apiece. And so I got wonderful grandkids. And it's just

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Lonnie Bedwell: been an amazing life.

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Dave Epstein: Nice. Sounds like an amazing family granddad as well. It's nothing wrong with being a grandfather these days. I'm loving it.

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Dave Epstein: Your eyes

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Dave Epstein: if you, if you will share with us the tragedy around your eyes, what happened?

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Dave Epstein: How it took you to where you are today.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Yeah, I was

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Lonnie Bedwell: turkey hunting about 3 quarters of a mile from where I'm sitting right now.

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Lonnie Bedwell: With a good friend of mine. I had harvested a turkey the day before, so I didn't even have a gun with me

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Lonnie Bedwell: and

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Lonnie Bedwell: which I was out calling from my buddy, and I don't think either one of us really knows what happened or how it happened.

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Lonnie Bedwell: but it took a full shotgun blast to the face at about 9 steps.

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Dave Epstein: Got it.

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Lonnie Bedwell: 85 pellets up in there took out a few teeth, and instantly in the dark, you know, just instantly went into the dark, and like, I said, don't mind raising my glasses. I don't even know my lids open anymore. My balls are physically still in there. What's left of them.

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Lonnie Bedwell: In hopes of who knows what technology and medical advancements will bring someday

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Lonnie Bedwell: interesting.

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Dave Epstein: Interesting.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Me and my buddy are still really, really good friends. I tell him all the time he's much better looking to me now.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and I probably wouldn't have went hunting with him. It just told me it's related to Dick Cheney, so.

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Dave Epstein: It must run in the, in the family.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Yeah, he's really not. But you know, I I just don't.

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Dave Epstein: That's a riot.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Yeah.

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Dave Epstein: Okay, a riot.

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Dave Epstein: So now you're a roofer by trade.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Well, yeah, I do. A lot of roofing. Roofing was the main thing. But

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Lonnie Bedwell: after I lost my eyesight, naturally, I couldn't work the power plant anymore, and I into building houses. Something I didn't do before I lost my eyesight.

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Lonnie Bedwell: So I do anything from the ground up, framing, sheeting, wiring roofing. I've helped build over 30 homes. And

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Lonnie Bedwell: yeah, it's just that's the big thing, though. People who see me on a roof. You know, that freaks them out more than anything, or like Lonnie. What are you doing on a roof? They haven't answered. I'm on a roof.

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Dave Epstein: Let's give them something to scratch their heads about.

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Dave Epstein: let's off the beaten path here while you're on the roof and framing, and we'll be getting more into these kinds of questions down the road. But

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Dave Epstein: I used to build houses myself before becoming a surveyor. Good luck with that as a blind individual, but

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Dave Epstein: as a framer, carpenter, contractor.

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Dave Epstein: Finnish, carpenter.

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Dave Epstein: What! What are your secrets to that? What

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Dave Epstein: what allows you, what gives you the abilities to

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Dave Epstein: do such things, make straight cuts, and mark and measure. What are your what are your secrets, your tools of the trade for building houses.

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Lonnie Bedwell: 1st and foremost, just having someone give me the opportunity.

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Dave Epstein: Love, that.

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Lonnie Bedwell: That's where it started at, you know, and quite frankly, they didn't want to. The contractors didn't want to to begin with.

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Lonnie Bedwell: but they were building my aunt's home.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and she told them about me.

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Lonnie Bedwell: She asked if they'd give me 2 weeks to try

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Lonnie Bedwell: that have worked out great. I could help finish building her home, and if it didn't she would understand, and I would understand. And they turned her down to begin with.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and she simply told them said, You don't understand.

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Lonnie Bedwell: You will give him 2 weeks where I will find someone else to finish building my home.

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Lonnie Bedwell: And I worked for those guys for over 14 years.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know what helps with that is. You know, I have talking tape measure accurate to an inch. You know, we got a click ruler beeping level. You know I use marble sometimes to drop on a Us to see if things are level or not. Level

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Lonnie Bedwell: a plum, bob strangers, and to fill in, say, the field of of, say, if I hang a sheet of drywall by myself, I lift it up, pack the you know the corners where I can fill the studs

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Lonnie Bedwell: in the edges. Now measure out my 16 inch centers or 2 foot centers.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and then I

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Lonnie Bedwell: start us a screw in, but I don't bury it, and then I just run a string up and down all the field.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and

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Lonnie Bedwell: just other than that, then, you know, compound mitre saw. We had what we call the saw buck

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Lonnie Bedwell: aerosol on a table, and I could

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Lonnie Bedwell: fully set slide a piece of siding or softening into it and make a full cut across it, and just put my tape measure to the end of the siding, or softening, for example, and

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Lonnie Bedwell: draw it down to the edge of the of the blade

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Lonnie Bedwell: and just set my measurement that way. If I was using regular circular saw I would use a I'd clamp a a cutting guide to a sheet of ox board, or whatever a 4 foot or 8 foot, and use it, or you know it's a straight line to cut, or you just simply tack another piece of

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Lonnie Bedwell: ox board or something straight on top of it. Keep in consideration the distance from the fence of the salt to the blade, and when I measured it, and this

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Lonnie Bedwell: got it so.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and to drive a nail, I just use a hammer and nail swing it just like always took me a long time.

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Lonnie Bedwell: bashed them my fingers thumbs numerous times till I got it.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and then using L. Guns. Well, yeah, it's, you know, through the adaptation.

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Lonnie Bedwell: there's just a little bit. It's not a significant.

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Lonnie Bedwell: not a real, significant difference in how I do things.

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Dave Epstein: And yet it is, though it is significant that that you are using such adaptive tools. I mean using marbles, dropping marbles, and

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Dave Epstein: finding level. I mean, when I was serving, we had CAD programs to do raindrops to find, you know which way the streets are pitching and all. But but here you are, you know, you're running mitre boxes and power tools. And

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Dave Epstein: what I what I love is things like talking tape measures and the the products that are supportive of you that are on the market. And yet

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Dave Epstein: you innovate. I mean, sure, plum bobs are. It's a straight string going up and down. Surveyors love them but you're using them actively to to get the job done again the marbles. And

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Dave Epstein: you're being innovative. I don't want to. I don't want to abuse the expression outside the box, but you're using things to get the job done. And really, this is. This is a crux of what I want to get into on this show is

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Dave Epstein: how you got here. Not just yeah. I went blind. And now I'm building houses, but the skills, the the knowledge, the the experiences of your past.

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Dave Epstein: that you can further into

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Dave Epstein: shingling a house or or roofing a house or or not. What? And yeah, good for you. This is, we're we're we're off the beaten path.

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Lonnie Bedwell: The room. As a matter of fact, I added on, after I lost my eyesight.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and you know I did the trim work I did on the Drywall did all the wiring.

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Lonnie Bedwell: I laid the flooring. I just didn't finish the drywall or paint it. That's pretty much the only thing I did not do.

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Dave Epstein: Okay

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Dave Epstein: you're getting it done, and when you're not building houses on your spare time, you're you're summiting crazy, crazy elevations, Kilimanjaro. And my goodness, Everest.

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Dave Epstein: my, I'm all ears. I'm all ears. Tell me about these experiences. How you do it. Where you go.

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Dave Epstein: Bring us along. Get us onto the mountain with you.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Yeah, the

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Lonnie Bedwell: It's kind of crazy how a lot of it came about because I really didn't have a desire to do the big mountains.

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Lonnie Bedwell: It just

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Lonnie Bedwell: happened.

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Lonnie Bedwell: It was not on my bucket list to do these big mountains, and

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Lonnie Bedwell: until

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Lonnie Bedwell: said, 20,

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Lonnie Bedwell: 2120, 22 in there somewhere, and

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Lonnie Bedwell: it's kind of kind of was asked to do it and bring awareness to the Blind Veterans Association and then just try to

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Lonnie Bedwell: just work on it but once again it came with people asking me.

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Lonnie Bedwell: providing me an opportunity, and believing in me, and saying, Lonnie, you know, can we? Would you? Would you do this and

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Lonnie Bedwell: and help to bring awareness to what's possible?

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Lonnie Bedwell: So it kind of set a goal for me

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Lonnie Bedwell: or a driving within me to try to do it, and

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know the

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Lonnie Bedwell: the clothing and stuff for me is just the same as as everyone else. You know. I I have a negative 20 degree sleeping bag. I have a negative 40 degree sleeping bag.

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Dave Epstein: Okay.

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Lonnie Bedwell: You know the colder weather, you know. Big, puffy, you know, real.

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know, big, puffy, sleeping bags, layers upon layers of clothes, you know, from thin layers of of wool or or fleece, and to thicker layers to thicker layers of thin layers of puffy coats to a

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Lonnie Bedwell: what we call absolute 0

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Lonnie Bedwell: big puffy coat and my boots are are, you know, the the 8,000 meter boots are called 8,000 meter boots. They're 3 layers. They got a thin little thin booty layer, a thicker

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Lonnie Bedwell: insulating layer, and then an outer hard shell.

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Dave Epstein: Okay.

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Lonnie Bedwell: And you know, use that kind of stuff layers on my hands, and you know completely, you know.

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Lonnie Bedwell: stuff to cover your face and stuff and then crampons. Once we get up into the glacier fields, you know, we put crampons on our feet to help.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Oh, oh, oh!

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Lonnie Bedwell: You know, grab a hold of the ice, and so you won't slip and fall, and personally for me, I I use a trekking pole in each hand.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and I follow the sound of the people in front of me and

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Lonnie Bedwell: or the feel, and on on Mount Everest you were clipped onto a guide rope, a safety rope pretty much all the way up.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and you know, you get about every I would say 150

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Lonnie Bedwell: to 200 feet might even be a little more than that is an is a fixed anchor.

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Lonnie Bedwell: You know that way that if you do slip and fall you're going. You're gonna fall from anchor to anchor instead of fall all the way down the mountain, and you have to flip on flips. You know

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Lonnie Bedwell: where once you get to an anchor you can unhook one safety device. Get on the Oops

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Lonnie Bedwell: hillside of that anchor before you unclip the second one. Okay, and.

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Dave Epstein: That.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Yeah. And then on the steeper sections, you know, you also use what they call an ascinder.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and it's you feed the rope into it, it clips onto it, and you just slide it up and you can use to help yourself pull.

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Lonnie Bedwell: And and as you take a step up you push it up.

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Lonnie Bedwell: you step up, or you know, right against you. Then you slide it up again, and you can use to help pull yourself up that rope, and that way, if you fall in those steeper sections, you only fall as far as that extender

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Lonnie Bedwell: to your safety harms. You know a couple 2 or 3 feet.

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Dave Epstein: Okay. So the the ascender is is is like a 1 way.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Yes.

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Dave Epstein: Device. Okay? And then and then you can release it to come on down.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Well, if you're coming down.

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Lonnie Bedwell: typically, you don't use the ascender, you know you repel.

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Dave Epstein: Okay, got that.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Right? Down. So yeah.

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Dave Epstein: So when I, when I was asking you if you really needed a sherpa, that I can pack 12 pounds confidently.

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Dave Epstein: you might be better off with somebody else up the hill.

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Dave Epstein: Just turn the ascender backwards, and then come on down easy, right.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, on on the Mount Everest, you know, the Sherpa, the Sherpa believe, is really an ethnic name.

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Dave Epstein: Nope.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Within that valley, and and you know it's just got to be called Sherpa. But there, some of the porters it's really porters.

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Dave Epstein: Borders.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Because, you know not all of the porters are Sherpa.

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Lonnie Bedwell: The vast majority are sure

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know the 1st name, like 2 of my guides. Tashi last name Sherpa. 1st name Finju, last name Sherpa. They were part of this

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Lonnie Bedwell: group, if you will, in that ball, and that's their last names, and that's kind of how it got so well known to be Sherpas, because they were primarily the people guiding in that region. But that's that's really.

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know, reporters. So.

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Lonnie Bedwell: They're amazing, you know. If it wasn't for them I

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Lonnie Bedwell: myself I wouldn't. I wouldn't get up there because they were the ones carrying all the heavy load for carrying the pants carrying extra food. You know

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Lonnie Bedwell: the supplemental oxygen. Once we got up above 23,000 feet, a little above that's called the death Zone, where the oxygen level is so thin you can't sustain life

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Lonnie Bedwell: very long without it, you know, even though some people have managed to climb on Everest without supplemental oxygen, which is just

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Lonnie Bedwell: stunning to me. You know they're doing it.

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Lonnie Bedwell: but most of us couldn't do it. So you know, they're carrying the supplemental oxygen up there and

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Lonnie Bedwell: masking.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and all I'm doing is just hiking and trying to get over the crevasses, you know, on the crevasses. You start. You start up on Mount Everest, you know, down about 8,003 feet in a little town called Lucra.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and you hike up through through the valley to Everest Base camp, which is about 17,000 feet.

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Lonnie Bedwell: That's approximately where the glacier field starts for me, hiking all the way up through that valley.

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Lonnie Bedwell: There was no snow.

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Lonnie Bedwell: It was all dry until I got up to Denver's base camp.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and then from Everest base camp

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Lonnie Bedwell: there's 4 camps above it.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and then the summit.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and

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Lonnie Bedwell: between ever base camp and camp one is called the the Kunbu Icefall.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and it's probably the most dangerous part of the mountain

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Lonnie Bedwell: cause. It's that section of the glacier that moves about

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Lonnie Bedwell: 3 to 4 feet a day, and it opens all these crevasses, which are great big splits in the ice.

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Dave Epstein: It moves every day. It's it's constantly in motion.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Constantly in motion.

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Dave Epstein: Wow! How risky!

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Lonnie Bedwell: Yeah. Yeah. And in doing so it pushes up what they call Saracs, which are big chunks of ice and rock.

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Lonnie Bedwell: And some of them, though, they said, get as big as a 3 story building. And on our trip

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Lonnie Bedwell: the 1st 3 people that perished was in that Kubri fall when one of those rats fell over and buried him. They were the Sherpa. They were the the porters that were set routes for for all of us to go through safely.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and then, if the crevasses are just, I don't know how many crevasses you cross.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Numerous numerous basses. If it's over approximately a foot and a half to 2 foot wide, they put a section of ladder in there.

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Dave Epstein: Okay.

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Lonnie Bedwell: You know that you can step on you. You clip the the crampons in between the prongs on your crampon about the ball of your foot

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Lonnie Bedwell: will go onto one round, and then you drop the heel, and it'll land on another round.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and there's 2 ropes that you can kind of elite. Well, at least one ropes you can kind of pull on for stability for balance. You can't lean on them because they're gonna flex down, but you could pull on for balance.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and as you cross those ladders and some of the crevasses, or one in particular

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Lonnie Bedwell: it had a full section. What 10 foot section ladder across the 1st time going up, and the 3rd time on the summit push. Going up, there was 3 complete sections ladder in the Indian, so why not opened up

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Lonnie Bedwell: between.

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know our acclamation pike, and then and then you have little head walls, you know, vertical head walls. You'd have to go up and climb, and

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Lonnie Bedwell: things to go around, and then from camp one to camp, 2 pretty straightforward

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Lonnie Bedwell: a few crevasses and things to cross. But we're relatively easy.

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Lonnie Bedwell: or that section was the easiest section.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and at Camp 2 that's the highest elevation. Hell. They they land a helicopter to take one person and go all from Camp 2 to Camp 3. You go up what they call the Lopeci phase, 1,500 feet of

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Lonnie Bedwell: pretty dagged on steep.

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Dave Epstein: I go, Steve!

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Lonnie Bedwell: Using the ascender and kicking your crampons in, you know, kicking the front of your crampons in and just stepping up really slow, really slowly.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and

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Lonnie Bedwell: that do I? During the 1st trip up out on my acclamation hike I there was a rock fall occurred above us, and one rock. Before I could bury myself into the side of the mountain so the rocks could hopefully go over me. One rock went right between my hands

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Lonnie Bedwell: in my face, hit my right boot and just crushed the top of my right boot.

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Lonnie Bedwell: thought it broke my foot, but thankfully it didn't, and

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Lonnie Bedwell: so, and they put some stuff on there to help seal up my boot.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and then you go from Camp 3. You go up more than Low Key face and wrap around to Camp 4.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Then Camp 4 is up to yeah. And you know, like I said, above Camp 3, I was on supplemental oxygen. Actually, I personally started down Camp 2, which you don't have to. But a lot of them are trying to to kind of help with your energy

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Lonnie Bedwell: and Camp 3 to Camp 4, as I'm so or supplement Camp 4 to the summit.

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Lonnie Bedwell: I definitely wasn't about 750 vertical feet from the top. My oxygen mask started to fail.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and

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Lonnie Bedwell: I climbed the last 7 or 15 without my supplemental oxygen. Working properly.

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Lonnie Bedwell: It was exhausting and.

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Dave Epstein: Hmm!

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Dave Epstein: But you pushed on on that you carried on to the summit.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Yeah, you know. And then we we passed as it was really challenging, because we passed the person who was really, really struggling and on her way down

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Lonnie Bedwell: he was in the final stages of his life, and

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Lonnie Bedwell: people who were much more experienced than I was that were

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Lonnie Bedwell: coming down, and you know I they were hollering at me and asked how I was doing. Couple of them told me they said I made it to within 500 vertical feet, and my eyelids broke shut. I had to turn around. Come down or

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know, and and all I could think about was.

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know. Just take another step. The people who believed in me to give me the chance. The people who sponsored me, the people.

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know, who are watching what we were doing, all of the sacrifices, all these veterans I just kept running through my mind, you know

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know they can, if they can go do what they're doing. I can just keep going. Just take another step, Mike, take another step. It's too important. And

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know, all those things pushed me. I knew it was so close to Memorial Day. I I summoned it on May 20, second

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Lonnie Bedwell: of 2023, and

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know, so close to. It's just now those were the things that were going through my mind.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Well, they give you the opportunity to be here.

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Lonnie Bedwell: You gotta give them everything. You know everything, you!

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Lonnie Bedwell: And

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Lonnie Bedwell: so he goes up the steep tendine steps and across the rocky hillary steps, and

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Lonnie Bedwell: at 1.1 across the hillary steps. The guide in front of me slipped

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Lonnie Bedwell: and he slid a little bit down a rock thankfully

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Lonnie Bedwell: click onto the safety line, and he was suspended, hanging above

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Lonnie Bedwell: a person that didn't make it up the mountain.

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Lonnie Bedwell: And and

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Lonnie Bedwell: he turned, climb back up, and we

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Lonnie Bedwell: we went on to the summit, and when we got to the summit

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Lonnie Bedwell: they didn't have any spare mask with me, but one of the orders.

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Lonnie Bedwell: swap mask with me, and 1st time I was able to take a full breath

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Lonnie Bedwell: in well, over 4 h easily, and he couldn't get my mask to work either, and he bailed down the mountain.

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Dave Epstein: Okay. Wow, wow.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Yeah.

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Dave Epstein: How you speak of of the porters and the Sherpas is really I can feel it

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Dave Epstein: sure. I've seen the news reports and the the incidents and the accidents up on the mountain, and when we lose

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Dave Epstein: these porters to rock falls and all.

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Dave Epstein: It's hard to hear, and and I know the whole story gets politicized about taking care of their families the government supporting them and backing them, and and limiting permits, and all.

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Dave Epstein: How how deeply were you affected by

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Dave Epstein: The the politics of it all! The you know these these people are invaluable, and yet it seems to be a a feud to keep them working and to keep the mountain open. What are your experiences on that.

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Lonnie Bedwell: I, personally didn't have a whole lot to delve into that, you know.

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Dave Epstein: A good.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Yeah, I wouldn't. I wasn't really involved in that, you know. My my contact was just with all of those

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Lonnie Bedwell: who support us at base camp, and you know, did all the cooking that I mean? It's extremely humbling.

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know, to see, you know. The average income over there, I was told, was like $1,250 a year.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and the people do this. They might make 4 times or more than that.

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Lonnie Bedwell: You know, month and a half, 2 months climbing season. So you know, it's

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Lonnie Bedwell: yet, you know, they're they're setting routes for us, or and it's just.

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Lonnie Bedwell: It's very humbling. And her just amazing amazing

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Lonnie Bedwell: strength and endurance that they have, and

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Lonnie Bedwell: fineness

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Lonnie Bedwell: their kindnesses, most of them are very, most of them are very, very kind.

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Dave Epstein: That that's the impression I get. But you know just being so here in America, watching the National Geographic Shows, and and how these porters present

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Dave Epstein: to the the hikers, to the the the tourists, so to speak.

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Dave Epstein: Fascinating. Just an amazing element of your community

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Dave Epstein: ever sounded like it was a huge challenge. Was that your biggest challenge

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Dave Epstein: as a blind person thinking about from start to finish from the time you had the incident to all the uphill battles you faced.

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Dave Epstein: What would be your personal, biggest challenge

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Dave Epstein: relative to your your last vision.

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Lonnie Bedwell: My.

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Lonnie Bedwell: that was by far the biggest physical

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Lonnie Bedwell: challenge

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Lonnie Bedwell: as far as pushing myself

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Lonnie Bedwell: to endure. But

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know, and and I want to say this to you.

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Lonnie Bedwell: I lost my eyesight.

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Lonnie Bedwell: I personally felt like I gained a vision.

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Dave Epstein: Okay.

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Lonnie Bedwell: You know, and that's just me, you know. I know I know it's a spin on words, but to me it's significant, because our true vision, in my opinion, is within us.

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Lonnie Bedwell: or heart, or mind, or soul or spirit. Eyesight is a function of it.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know it's

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Lonnie Bedwell: I always like to say when I do talks and presentations, a lot of my titles. Where can your vision take you?

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Lonnie Bedwell: You know

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Lonnie Bedwell: some of the biggest struggles was right at the beginning, you know, fighting back those tears, and you know what are my daughters? Think of me?

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Lonnie Bedwell: How am I going to be, Daddy? How am I going to do anything, you know, losing all that strength and just trying to figure out? You know

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Lonnie Bedwell: world.

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Lonnie Bedwell: you just.

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Lonnie Bedwell: It's just

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Lonnie Bedwell: overwhelming. It seemed overwhelming, anyway, and

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know my daughters, I think, were truly the ones

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Lonnie Bedwell: that helped me get going. Well, all these adults initially were saying, No, no, Lonnie, let me get that for you. Let me do this for you. Let me do that for you. My daughters were just saying, Go, go, Daddy, let Daddy, you know, they they're the ones that

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Lonnie Bedwell: got me started doing a lot of things that I used to do.

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Lonnie Bedwell: And then the adults kind of jumped on board. When they realized these girls are gonna

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Lonnie Bedwell: we're gonna help him. They don't know what they're doing because they're so young, so we better jump forward. But and it was

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Lonnie Bedwell: it was that. And and whenever I I was so fortunate, just a couple literally right. 2 months after losing my eyesight.

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Lonnie Bedwell: my youngest daughter, who was 5, helped me mow around my loud building out here.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and that made me realize that I was still Daddy.

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Dave Epstein: Nice oh, goodness!

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Lonnie Bedwell: And I still could, you know, and

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Lonnie Bedwell: they were the ones that were truly telling me. Only add wine.

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Lonnie Bedwell: But that doesn't define you.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and blindness is part of you, just like where you're from, how you were raised time in the service.

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Lonnie Bedwell: So many other things about my past. That's a part of me.

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Lonnie Bedwell: but individually none of them define me

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Lonnie Bedwell: unless I allow it.

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Lonnie Bedwell: And they were the ones that kind of.

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Lonnie Bedwell: We're so

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Lonnie Bedwell: really the ones that really set that tone to begin with, and

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Lonnie Bedwell: and then then just massive support from you know my my mom and dad, my brother and cousins and people around after that. And

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know, I'm simply going out and grabbing and using a chainsaw again. I cut firewood all the time all the time.

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Dave Epstein: Love, that.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Their fence. Rose push, mo, and

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Lonnie Bedwell: You know

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Lonnie Bedwell: this this epic stuff

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Lonnie Bedwell: I kind of go to push yet

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Lonnie Bedwell: because it helps. It brings awareness. But it's the everyday stuff, you know, teaching my dog how to drive. Coaching her softball teams, push them on around our ponds. They're using the chainsaw the building. It's the everyday stuff that resonates with people. Yes.

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Dave Epstein: Yes, yes.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Yeah, I get accused all the time

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Lonnie Bedwell: of having

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Lonnie Bedwell: so my site.

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know, which which is kind of cool, you know. It's kind of cool. When people say, Yeah, you you can really see a little bit, Katie.

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Lonnie Bedwell: I can see

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Lonnie Bedwell: that would help.

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Dave Epstein: What a what an interesting comment! Backhanded compliment!

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Dave Epstein: Now I've got rp, and I've got wow! An amazing 3 degree central in one eye. And yet I could still see the cell phone enough to read texts and all and and I'm so concerned about people accusing me of faking, being blind or faking being sighted, whatever you want to look at that as but but but, Lonnie, you've got you've got.

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Dave Epstein: You've got not a.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Not a bad.

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Dave Epstein: And and yeah, you you're you're you're excelling. That puts a huge smile on my face that that people get to accuse you of faking being blind because you're so good.

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Lonnie Bedwell: And I was working on one house for 4 months, and the homeowner

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Lonnie Bedwell: showed up at least once a week for that 4 month period, and I was in the final stages. I was hanging the ceiling fan, and I asked the the contractors his, who were standing right down below me.

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Lonnie Bedwell: talking to the homeowner, I said, Hey, can you guys tell me what color these wires are? And the homeowner is like? What do you mean? What color.

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Dave Epstein: What?

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Lonnie Bedwell: And I said, I can't see him, he said. He! They're like no, you really can't see him. Well, he took him in the other room, and he's like he wired my house.

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Dave Epstein: Medic Medic.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Yeah, and it was

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Lonnie Bedwell: But you know, the thing about it.

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Lonnie Bedwell: is, that's what every single human being really wants is someone to believe in them and give them a chance.

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Lonnie Bedwell: Give an opportunity. I'm no different, because I'm blind. Everyone is like that.

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Lonnie Bedwell: And

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Lonnie Bedwell: so

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Lonnie Bedwell: what can we not do if we'll simply help each other and do that. Give each other a chance.

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Lonnie Bedwell: you know. Give, give each other a hand up, not a handout handout, but hand up.

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Lonnie Bedwell: And

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Lonnie Bedwell: yeah.

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Dave Epstein: Love, that.

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Lonnie Bedwell: That's

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Lonnie Bedwell: and that's what I consider. I mean. I have been so so blessed with opportunities.

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Lonnie Bedwell: and all I can try to do is. Pay it forward, you know I I can never repay everything that's been given to me in my lifetime.

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Lonnie Bedwell: or people giving me chances of leaving, but just trying to pay for it. And

402
00:36:26.800 --> 00:36:35.310
Lonnie Bedwell: you know, I tell these kids that's 1 thing I do love to do is go talk at a lot of these local high schools and schools for the blind just wherever and

403
00:36:35.660 --> 00:36:37.060
Lonnie Bedwell: and you know.

404
00:36:37.550 --> 00:36:43.039
Lonnie Bedwell: tell these kids have that they have purpose. There's no one in the world like them.

405
00:36:43.100 --> 00:36:49.279
Lonnie Bedwell: You know, we all have this unique set of gifts, this basket of gifts that nobody else in the world has.

406
00:36:49.490 --> 00:36:51.139
Lonnie Bedwell: We might share some

407
00:36:51.300 --> 00:36:53.220
Lonnie Bedwell: similar gifts with other people.

408
00:36:53.260 --> 00:36:57.600
Lonnie Bedwell: But nobody has this basket of gifts that I have.

409
00:36:57.850 --> 00:37:02.950
Lonnie Bedwell: that you have, that they have, and that's what makes us all so extremely important.

410
00:37:03.220 --> 00:37:05.400
Lonnie Bedwell: so extremely valuable, and.

411
00:37:05.730 --> 00:37:13.859
Lonnie Bedwell: you know, never was going to be a professional athlete or professional singer, or but yet I can do so much more than

412
00:37:14.320 --> 00:37:16.199
Lonnie Bedwell: truly ever thought I could.

413
00:37:16.980 --> 00:37:18.220
Lonnie Bedwell: Blind or not blind.

414
00:37:18.610 --> 00:37:19.680
Lonnie Bedwell: And

415
00:37:20.470 --> 00:37:22.900
Lonnie Bedwell: yeah, and just took people to kind of

416
00:37:23.510 --> 00:37:24.969
Lonnie Bedwell: let me see that.

417
00:37:25.920 --> 00:37:34.042
Dave Epstein: It amazing, and that you're getting it done with such grace, such power and confidence

418
00:37:35.420 --> 00:37:46.250
Dave Epstein: such inspiration to all of us. B. And lv individuals I I'd love to ask you this. I I hadn't thought of this, but I'm I'm I'd love to ask you.

419
00:37:47.100 --> 00:37:48.350
Dave Epstein: given

420
00:37:48.500 --> 00:38:08.630
Dave Epstein: where you are today your your powerhouse successes. And man, you're leaving a wake of awesomeness behind you. If someone were to approach you and say, Lonnie, I can cure you today. I can give you back what you had the day prior to that hunting accident. Would you take it.

421
00:38:08.790 --> 00:38:09.920
Lonnie Bedwell: Absolutely.

422
00:38:09.920 --> 00:38:10.510
Dave Epstein: You would.

423
00:38:10.510 --> 00:38:12.160
Lonnie Bedwell: But but

424
00:38:12.200 --> 00:38:15.049
Lonnie Bedwell: if I could go back 27 years and change it.

425
00:38:15.210 --> 00:38:20.899
Lonnie Bedwell: no, not a chance. If I could see today, see tomorrow in a heartbeat.

426
00:38:21.210 --> 00:38:31.599
Lonnie Bedwell: because, you know, I miss the independence of driving. I miss seeing my daughter's beautiful smiling faces and her sparkling eyes. I miss seeing nature.

427
00:38:31.920 --> 00:38:32.680
Dave Epstein: Yeah.

428
00:38:32.680 --> 00:38:35.080
Lonnie Bedwell: Would I? Would I get my eyesight back? Yes.

429
00:38:35.370 --> 00:38:37.820
Lonnie Bedwell: once again I could go back and change it.

430
00:38:38.100 --> 00:38:39.080
Lonnie Bedwell: Not a chance.

431
00:38:39.380 --> 00:38:43.359
Lonnie Bedwell: There's absolutely no way I would ever go back and change it.

432
00:38:44.640 --> 00:38:53.160
Dave Epstein: Fascinating. This is a question that I get lots of variation in. Obviously, I've asked myself that many, many times.

433
00:38:53.330 --> 00:38:55.120
Dave Epstein: and it seems

434
00:38:57.090 --> 00:39:08.000
Dave Epstein: as though people's responses stem from their identification of themselves. I'm a blind guy, or I'm a guy who's blind.

435
00:39:08.080 --> 00:39:11.600
Dave Epstein: How do I perceive myself in in public.

436
00:39:13.640 --> 00:39:19.040
Dave Epstein: and it's it's refreshing to hear that you are a solid

437
00:39:19.765 --> 00:39:24.004
Dave Epstein: yes, yes, I will go back if I had the opportunity.

438
00:39:24.390 --> 00:39:29.820
Lonnie Bedwell: I wouldn't go back. I I mean, yeah, yeah, I guess to your point. I would see again. But I wouldn't go back

439
00:39:29.840 --> 00:39:31.360
Lonnie Bedwell: and change it. Yeah.

440
00:39:31.360 --> 00:39:38.030
Dave Epstein: Got that? Got that? No, no, i i i don't mean to to redo the last 27 years of life I mean, you've

441
00:39:38.080 --> 00:39:54.576
Dave Epstein: ha, Lana, you've crushed it. You've crushed this planet, but but just to to get the experience of having your eyes back, and how that would serve you. Of course, the independence, the driving seeing your daughter's faces again.

442
00:39:56.690 --> 00:40:03.160
Dave Epstein: And and and and because you're not identifying yourself primarily as a blind person first, st

443
00:40:03.190 --> 00:40:07.429
Dave Epstein: and then without the blindness. Who's Lonnie? You know you're not going down that road

444
00:40:07.802 --> 00:40:16.960
Dave Epstein: you've got a very strong sense of exactly who you are and where you are in this amazing planet. At the tops of the peaks.

445
00:40:17.300 --> 00:40:24.009
Lonnie Bedwell: Yeah, you know, it's I said it earlier. No blindness is part of me, but it doesn't define me, and I think

446
00:40:24.880 --> 00:40:35.619
Lonnie Bedwell: whenever you own it and it like I said, this didn't happen instantaneous for me. There were struggles, you know. I I've been absolute liar. If I say here and say I didn't struggle.

447
00:40:35.620 --> 00:40:36.270
Dave Epstein: It.

448
00:40:36.270 --> 00:40:40.510
Lonnie Bedwell: You know or say, there's times where, when I'm still at times not frustrated.

449
00:40:40.550 --> 00:40:45.140
Lonnie Bedwell: but as a whole I'm definitely not. And

450
00:40:46.240 --> 00:40:48.229
Lonnie Bedwell: when you own something.

451
00:40:48.430 --> 00:40:52.619
Lonnie Bedwell: It doesn't own you and I I. There's 1 young man

452
00:40:52.820 --> 00:40:54.789
Lonnie Bedwell: who lost his eyesight

453
00:40:55.470 --> 00:41:00.390
Lonnie Bedwell: by trying to shoot himself, put him right between his eyes and survived it

454
00:41:00.420 --> 00:41:02.180
Lonnie Bedwell: along with eyesight.

455
00:41:02.210 --> 00:41:06.699
Lonnie Bedwell: and I remember telling him he asked me. He said, well, I just don't know what to say to people.

456
00:41:07.430 --> 00:41:11.019
Lonnie Bedwell: and I told him, I said simply, tell them what happened.

457
00:41:11.440 --> 00:41:12.800
Lonnie Bedwell: You omit.

458
00:41:13.130 --> 00:41:17.999
Lonnie Bedwell: It doesn't own you. It has you when you own it. It has no power over you.

459
00:41:18.040 --> 00:41:20.910
Lonnie Bedwell: It might have been a a moment in your life, but

460
00:41:21.495 --> 00:41:28.630
Lonnie Bedwell: just a momentary thing that you know. It shouldn't shouldn't happen an accident. It shouldn't happen or whatever.

461
00:41:28.690 --> 00:41:36.340
Lonnie Bedwell: But it's just like the guy that I was in the accident. I tell him all the time we I was part of a documentary.

462
00:41:36.860 --> 00:41:43.569
Lonnie Bedwell: and he said, in that documentary, you know, having shot me, it's no longer an open wound.

463
00:41:43.970 --> 00:41:45.780
Lonnie Bedwell: but it's still a scar.

464
00:41:45.880 --> 00:41:49.350
Lonnie Bedwell: and I remember telling him I said, I want the scar to go away.

465
00:41:50.540 --> 00:42:00.859
Lonnie Bedwell: You know, and I truly do i i i you know we can't forget it. There's no forgetting it, but yet I don't want you to carry that yoke. I don't want you to carry that burden.

466
00:42:01.100 --> 00:42:09.890
Lonnie Bedwell: and I truly do believe, when, when you own who you are, the the things that have happened in your life, the the mistakes we all make mistakes.

467
00:42:10.690 --> 00:42:22.089
Lonnie Bedwell: but when we own that we made them, and we we have to let go sometimes of those things. If we're truly going to move forward. My my daughters taught me that as well, and and my buddy, and

468
00:42:22.340 --> 00:42:25.430
Lonnie Bedwell: you know we don't. We don't need to forget them.

469
00:42:25.750 --> 00:42:28.649
Lonnie Bedwell: cause we need to learn from them sometimes, but

470
00:42:28.990 --> 00:42:31.050
Lonnie Bedwell: but yet own it.

471
00:42:31.340 --> 00:42:37.189
Lonnie Bedwell: You know, I think about that personally as okay, all own we're at. It's just own it.

472
00:42:37.240 --> 00:42:39.160
Lonnie Bedwell: And let's figure out, okay, now

473
00:42:39.640 --> 00:42:48.940
Lonnie Bedwell: it's it's here we can't. We can't go back and change it. It's impossible. But what can we do to just kind of let go of the negative emotions to move forward.

474
00:42:49.200 --> 00:42:52.479
Lonnie Bedwell: And and I really encourage people

475
00:42:52.600 --> 00:42:53.839
Lonnie Bedwell: to do that. You

476
00:42:54.020 --> 00:42:56.000
Lonnie Bedwell: whole much about him. It's.

477
00:42:56.435 --> 00:42:56.870
Dave Epstein: So.

478
00:42:56.870 --> 00:42:59.210
Lonnie Bedwell: We're all different. And

479
00:42:59.220 --> 00:43:00.260
Lonnie Bedwell: you know.

480
00:43:02.030 --> 00:43:05.619
Lonnie Bedwell: yeah, show them who we are and figure out how to get along. Okay.

481
00:43:09.390 --> 00:43:13.936
Dave Epstein: brilliant, I I no words. You should have sent a poet

482
00:43:14.510 --> 00:43:22.689
Dave Epstein: I, I don't I don't know what what else to to add to that, Lonnie, that's just very emotionally packed and very, very

483
00:43:24.080 --> 00:43:26.870
Dave Epstein: powerful. I appreciate your words.

484
00:43:29.990 --> 00:43:39.599
Lonnie Bedwell: You know. I I do like said too, and I think as a blind person I I say this as well. You know a lot of people say, Well, man, some of the things they ask me are

485
00:43:39.700 --> 00:43:41.550
Lonnie Bedwell: or crazy, or some of the things

486
00:43:43.330 --> 00:43:52.710
Lonnie Bedwell: I we gotta bring awareness out there. And I and I say this a lot we might. I might be the 1st blind person that some of these people have ever met.

487
00:43:53.160 --> 00:43:55.669
Lonnie Bedwell: and it is my responsibility

488
00:43:56.950 --> 00:43:58.569
Lonnie Bedwell: to teach them

489
00:43:59.110 --> 00:44:03.550
Lonnie Bedwell: what I can do, what I can't do, how to deal with me, how to help and

490
00:44:03.910 --> 00:44:05.849
Lonnie Bedwell: and give them the grace.

491
00:44:06.020 --> 00:44:11.159
Lonnie Bedwell: Now, once I've taken the time to do that, then I can absolutely hold them accountable.

492
00:44:12.730 --> 00:44:13.750
Lonnie Bedwell: Oh, really good!

493
00:44:13.800 --> 00:44:17.560
Lonnie Bedwell: I think there's those times and moments where you you will run into people that are.

494
00:44:17.860 --> 00:44:20.549
Lonnie Bedwell: you know. They don't speak because they don't know what to say, you know.

495
00:44:21.090 --> 00:44:24.650
Lonnie Bedwell: hey? I'll tell you what to say to me. Hi! You know what.

496
00:44:24.650 --> 00:44:28.139
Dave Epstein: Right? I I don't know how to talk to a blind guy. Right?

497
00:44:28.770 --> 00:44:29.530
Dave Epstein: Yeah.

498
00:44:29.530 --> 00:44:33.499
Lonnie Bedwell: They raise their voice cause they think you know. Hey, wait.

499
00:44:34.475 --> 00:44:42.734
Dave Epstein: With a hand waving frantically in your face. Hi! Hi! Well, well, that brings up a a really really interesting question.

500
00:44:43.480 --> 00:44:49.850
Dave Epstein: What are we as a blind community, not addressing? What are we not talking about that

501
00:44:51.100 --> 00:44:56.999
Dave Epstein: should be out there from one blind person to either the sighted community or to another blind Yac.

502
00:44:59.440 --> 00:45:02.089
Lonnie Bedwell: The 1st thing to to each other

503
00:45:02.600 --> 00:45:05.179
Lonnie Bedwell: is, don't ever question your value.

504
00:45:06.350 --> 00:45:11.739
Lonnie Bedwell: your worth, your purpose. Don't ever question that about yourself.

505
00:45:12.560 --> 00:45:16.880
Lonnie Bedwell: We just can't see every single human being on the face of the earth.

506
00:45:17.530 --> 00:45:22.230
Lonnie Bedwell: If you can be considered disabled if you take the word disabled at its core

507
00:45:22.540 --> 00:45:23.689
Lonnie Bedwell: not able.

508
00:45:23.830 --> 00:45:29.349
Lonnie Bedwell: Every single person on the face of earth is not able to do everything.

509
00:45:30.350 --> 00:45:32.799
Lonnie Bedwell: There are multiple things I cannot do.

510
00:45:33.100 --> 00:45:34.100
Lonnie Bedwell: but

511
00:45:34.680 --> 00:45:38.120
Lonnie Bedwell: we can do so much more than we think we can

512
00:45:39.350 --> 00:45:45.100
Lonnie Bedwell: if we simply believe in ourselves, and that's where it starts is believing on ourselves. If we want others to believe in us.

513
00:45:45.510 --> 00:45:48.710
Lonnie Bedwell: believe in ourselves, and believe in each other, and then

514
00:45:48.750 --> 00:45:50.799
Lonnie Bedwell: help each other, and that's

515
00:45:51.250 --> 00:45:53.370
Lonnie Bedwell: But don't ever question your back.

516
00:45:53.450 --> 00:45:59.280
Lonnie Bedwell: Don't ever question your value. And once again, this isn't unique to us. Being blind.

517
00:45:59.500 --> 00:46:02.990
Lonnie Bedwell: I had a discussion with with my dad quite honestly.

518
00:46:03.010 --> 00:46:06.250
Lonnie Bedwell: you know who's 80 years old now, and he's like I'm not the.

519
00:46:06.270 --> 00:46:07.669
Lonnie Bedwell: you know, like that.

520
00:46:08.650 --> 00:46:11.430
Lonnie Bedwell: Sure, you might not be able to do things quite like you used to.

521
00:46:12.550 --> 00:46:13.430
Lonnie Bedwell: But

522
00:46:13.940 --> 00:46:25.689
Lonnie Bedwell: look at what your grandkids, and look at what your great grandkids they come, they want to bleed you, they want to. They want to glean your knowledge. You tell me that you. Your value is still not as much as it used to be.

523
00:46:26.030 --> 00:46:27.570
Lonnie Bedwell: It absolutely is.

524
00:46:28.070 --> 00:46:29.750
Lonnie Bedwell: you know, and

525
00:46:30.180 --> 00:46:33.769
Lonnie Bedwell: that's what I would say, because I was a blind person, to begin with.

526
00:46:34.190 --> 00:46:35.060
Lonnie Bedwell: Yes.

527
00:46:35.540 --> 00:46:37.510
Lonnie Bedwell: believe, believe bleep.

528
00:46:37.680 --> 00:46:38.580
Lonnie Bedwell: And

529
00:46:38.910 --> 00:46:41.730
Lonnie Bedwell: you know to the what what

530
00:46:41.770 --> 00:46:44.790
Lonnie Bedwell: we're not doing out there, in my opinion.

531
00:46:45.110 --> 00:46:47.030
Lonnie Bedwell: is getting out there or not

532
00:46:47.150 --> 00:46:52.230
Lonnie Bedwell: in my community right here. There are so many blind, visually impaired people.

533
00:46:52.900 --> 00:46:55.869
Lonnie Bedwell: or not wanting to leave their homes or not wanting to go out.

534
00:46:58.220 --> 00:46:59.859
Lonnie Bedwell: and it's like, why not?

535
00:47:01.998 --> 00:47:07.720
Lonnie Bedwell: If if get out there, you know, get out there and show. And and

536
00:47:08.380 --> 00:47:09.580
Lonnie Bedwell: I think

537
00:47:10.210 --> 00:47:14.799
Lonnie Bedwell: there's 3 things I call them emotions that hold all of us back more than any

538
00:47:15.140 --> 00:47:20.949
Lonnie Bedwell: foolish pride, fear, and pity. If you want to consider them emotions, this, or mindsets.

539
00:47:21.950 --> 00:47:26.060
Lonnie Bedwell: there's nothing wrong with being proud of who you are, what you do.

540
00:47:26.980 --> 00:47:29.039
Lonnie Bedwell: and all those sort of things.

541
00:47:29.320 --> 00:47:31.699
Lonnie Bedwell: But pride is foolish

542
00:47:32.050 --> 00:47:34.209
Lonnie Bedwell: when you can't humble yourself

543
00:47:34.640 --> 00:47:38.530
Lonnie Bedwell: to ask for that hand up once again. Not that handout, but that hand up.

544
00:47:38.880 --> 00:47:42.190
Lonnie Bedwell: Pride is foolish when you just think oh, you know.

545
00:47:43.490 --> 00:47:47.960
Lonnie Bedwell: and you're so proud that you that you just can't do that. And and

546
00:47:48.240 --> 00:47:53.970
Lonnie Bedwell: that to me leads into the fear FEAR. False evidence about reality.

547
00:47:54.220 --> 00:47:55.691
Lonnie Bedwell: People are gonna think

548
00:47:57.120 --> 00:48:07.080
Lonnie Bedwell: whatever, because I'm blind, or I might get hurt if I do this or I, you know I might get bit by dog. If I go out in the

549
00:48:07.410 --> 00:48:11.450
Lonnie Bedwell: outside my house, you know, if you know there's a dog out there, don't do it. But yet.

550
00:48:12.350 --> 00:48:16.889
Lonnie Bedwell: just to simply not go outside, because this might happen to you.

551
00:48:17.250 --> 00:48:20.589
Lonnie Bedwell: or you're afraid someone might make fun of you.

552
00:48:22.570 --> 00:48:26.610
Lonnie Bedwell: as adults more often not, they're not going to. But if they do.

553
00:48:26.790 --> 00:48:34.549
Lonnie Bedwell: you have to realize that's on them that's not on you. They only make fun of them to making fun of you, to make themselves

554
00:48:34.620 --> 00:48:35.969
Lonnie Bedwell: feel better about

555
00:48:36.460 --> 00:48:37.580
Lonnie Bedwell: themselves.

556
00:48:38.030 --> 00:48:39.689
Lonnie Bedwell: It's really not on mute.

557
00:48:39.750 --> 00:48:44.210
Lonnie Bedwell: Don't take personal, just I. If someone makes fun of me to hurt me.

558
00:48:44.700 --> 00:48:46.530
Lonnie Bedwell: I was like, well, you know.

559
00:48:46.600 --> 00:48:50.090
Lonnie Bedwell: I hope you get over what's ailing you right now, or you wouldn't be doing this to me.

560
00:48:50.260 --> 00:48:54.809
Lonnie Bedwell: But but most of the time people want to help people people.

561
00:48:55.540 --> 00:49:03.979
Lonnie Bedwell: Yeah, and you're not going to get hurt. And and you know and like, I said, and then the worst thing it leads into is to the pity

562
00:49:04.780 --> 00:49:08.769
Lonnie Bedwell: I'll actually PITY pour information to yourself.

563
00:49:09.710 --> 00:49:11.900
Lonnie Bedwell: I'm useless because I'm blind.

564
00:49:11.980 --> 00:49:15.690
Lonnie Bedwell: I'm not a man anymore, because I'm blind. I'm

565
00:49:15.910 --> 00:49:29.070
Lonnie Bedwell: whatever it is that makes you feel so so sorry for yourself, that it cripples you and prevents you from going outside into this world, into this life, that you should be living. And candidly.

566
00:49:30.050 --> 00:49:36.029
Lonnie Bedwell: and you know we we have to get out there, and we have to teach others what's possible. And

567
00:49:36.782 --> 00:49:39.070
Lonnie Bedwell: I I distinctly remember.

568
00:49:39.270 --> 00:49:43.630
Lonnie Bedwell: you know, kayaking the Batoka Gorge section of the Zambezi River over in Africa.

569
00:49:44.450 --> 00:49:52.919
Lonnie Bedwell: just below Victoria Falls over there, and a local Zambian man over there told me, he said, Lonnie, you know, over here. We don't teach the blind.

570
00:49:53.050 --> 00:49:55.600
Lonnie Bedwell: We simply have them stand on the corner and back.

571
00:49:55.740 --> 00:49:56.960
Dave Epstein: Oh, my goodness!

572
00:49:57.210 --> 00:49:59.719
Lonnie Bedwell: And but he told me that

573
00:50:00.170 --> 00:50:05.019
Lonnie Bedwell: because he wanted to let me know he he had. He refocused his mind.

574
00:50:05.260 --> 00:50:12.000
Lonnie Bedwell: and I was told by people who live over there. Yeah, I talk about this in my presentations as well.

575
00:50:12.070 --> 00:50:23.280
Lonnie Bedwell: A a gentleman told me so, Lonnie, when he said, There's people standing, he said. There's people almost on every corner that was standing out there that were blind, or or in a wheelchair, or whatever the case

576
00:50:23.450 --> 00:50:28.499
Lonnie Bedwell: bank. Well, that gentleman took it upon himself. I come to find out.

577
00:50:30.370 --> 00:50:37.409
Lonnie Bedwell: and he started teaching these people how to weave, how to garden, how to carve, how to build how to do numerous things

578
00:50:37.440 --> 00:50:41.289
Lonnie Bedwell: and got the community involved with it. And I've been told this

579
00:50:41.650 --> 00:50:47.130
Lonnie Bedwell: that you go over to Livingston Zambia now, and you don't find a single person on the corner.

580
00:50:48.500 --> 00:50:50.259
Lonnie Bedwell: Love that bank.

581
00:50:51.420 --> 00:50:52.709
Dave Epstein: Love that that's

582
00:50:53.750 --> 00:50:54.820
Dave Epstein: that's

583
00:50:54.890 --> 00:50:55.900
Dave Epstein: epic.

584
00:50:55.910 --> 00:50:58.500
Dave Epstein: That's that's enormous for our community.

585
00:50:58.500 --> 00:51:03.720
Lonnie Bedwell: Yeah, and and but that's see. And that goes back once again to me. In my opinion

586
00:51:04.800 --> 00:51:05.820
Lonnie Bedwell: we can't

587
00:51:05.890 --> 00:51:09.390
Lonnie Bedwell: we? We can't always just get mad because things aren't just.

588
00:51:09.800 --> 00:51:11.640
Lonnie Bedwell: We have to

589
00:51:12.270 --> 00:51:13.510
Lonnie Bedwell: get out there

590
00:51:13.680 --> 00:51:14.810
Lonnie Bedwell: and teach

591
00:51:14.900 --> 00:51:16.190
Lonnie Bedwell: and show

592
00:51:16.460 --> 00:51:17.580
Lonnie Bedwell: and have

593
00:51:17.740 --> 00:51:19.889
Lonnie Bedwell: some pretty thick skin.

594
00:51:20.160 --> 00:51:22.450
Lonnie Bedwell: not take things personal.

595
00:51:22.650 --> 00:51:28.119
Lonnie Bedwell: you know, and and and if if they are meant personally, just don't believe.

596
00:51:28.140 --> 00:51:30.110
Lonnie Bedwell: you know, because once again.

597
00:51:30.630 --> 00:51:34.610
Lonnie Bedwell: I can show you a ton of people with eyesight

598
00:51:36.030 --> 00:51:38.480
Lonnie Bedwell: that cannot do the things that I can do.

599
00:51:39.230 --> 00:51:39.980
Dave Epstein: Because.

600
00:51:39.980 --> 00:51:43.069
Lonnie Bedwell: Once again. It's not their gift. It doesn't mean any less of them

601
00:51:43.120 --> 00:51:47.000
Lonnie Bedwell: but once, you know. But then I can't do the things I do.

602
00:51:47.000 --> 00:51:48.479
Dave Epstein: Right, right.

603
00:51:49.760 --> 00:51:53.949
Lonnie Bedwell: That's that's just this is just my philosophy of it, and.

604
00:51:55.690 --> 00:52:07.218
Dave Epstein: That's it's interesting. We get to build our wheelhouses. We get to stock our wheelhouses with our tools, our needs. And and you're right. They're all different.

605
00:52:07.690 --> 00:52:19.500
Dave Epstein: what I can bring to the table versus somebody else with Rp, we are all, and and that you're shedding like light on the uniqueness of every single individual out here.

606
00:52:20.720 --> 00:52:23.420
Lonnie Bedwell: I could not do this podcast. If it was.

607
00:52:24.102 --> 00:52:25.467
Dave Epstein: Me, neither.

608
00:52:26.150 --> 00:52:29.520
Lonnie Bedwell: I'm not good with technology, and I know that

609
00:52:29.840 --> 00:52:36.909
Lonnie Bedwell: I can. I can. I can dabble around a little bit with it. But I'm not really really good, and but yet

610
00:52:37.180 --> 00:52:40.040
Lonnie Bedwell: I I know I am good at this.

611
00:52:40.080 --> 00:52:46.550
Lonnie Bedwell: and I can think of remember growing up. I was 4 foot 11 when I got my driver's license weighed 110 pounds.

612
00:52:46.830 --> 00:52:48.689
Lonnie Bedwell: and my grandmother.

613
00:52:48.900 --> 00:52:50.329
Lonnie Bedwell: my dad's mother.

614
00:52:50.520 --> 00:52:54.059
Lonnie Bedwell: always told me growing up since I'm so so little.

615
00:52:54.540 --> 00:52:58.239
Lonnie Bedwell: She always told me. Focus on your gifts, mommy.

616
00:52:58.680 --> 00:53:02.540
Lonnie Bedwell: focus on your gifts after losing my eyesight

617
00:53:03.430 --> 00:53:09.899
Lonnie Bedwell: that those words really came back to me. And that's where you've heard me say it so much. Now just back.

618
00:53:10.260 --> 00:53:12.860
Lonnie Bedwell: Focus on your gifts, Lonnie.

619
00:53:13.240 --> 00:53:16.249
Lonnie Bedwell: and then let other people's gifts

620
00:53:16.320 --> 00:53:28.220
Lonnie Bedwell: also be yours, you know, if it wasn't for the people who do the computer stuff. If one for the people who played the sports, who sing the songs, who who do the computer, who who are the doctors who are.

621
00:53:28.660 --> 00:53:31.540
Lonnie Bedwell: who would do it for me, cause I can't.

622
00:53:31.730 --> 00:53:52.910
Dave Epstein: Right right. But but you you bring up a really interesting point, and one of the main questions I like to ask is, where did you get your knowledge skills and abilities to be able to do the awesome things you're doing today? You just answered that you were taught at an early early age.

623
00:53:53.090 --> 00:54:04.189
Dave Epstein: You know that wisdom and that carried you forward as a cornerstone to you, summiting Everest and doing 1,500 barrel rolls in a

624
00:54:04.320 --> 00:54:07.960
Dave Epstein: semi water, tight little boat

625
00:54:08.280 --> 00:54:17.650
Dave Epstein: in the middle of nowhere. You know you. You have these these tools that that made it into your toolbox very early in your life.

626
00:54:17.660 --> 00:54:19.950
Dave Epstein: and you've retained them. So

627
00:54:20.920 --> 00:54:24.654
Dave Epstein: what makes Lonnie Lonnie? Well, you're you're crushing it.

628
00:54:26.230 --> 00:54:31.129
Dave Epstein: Is there anything I didn't ask yet today that you're just dying to cover.

629
00:54:31.410 --> 00:54:32.150
Lonnie Bedwell: Well.

630
00:54:32.520 --> 00:54:35.590
Lonnie Bedwell: 1st and foremost is, there's nothing

631
00:54:35.640 --> 00:54:38.129
Lonnie Bedwell: special about Lonnie Bedwell.

632
00:54:39.740 --> 00:54:40.670
Dave Epstein: Differ, but.

633
00:54:40.670 --> 00:54:51.840
Lonnie Bedwell: I'm just. I'm not this extremely gifted athlete. I'm not this, you know, but I'm not this, you know, like I said between me and you. We've got a lot of wisdom. You got all the wheels, and I supply all the dumb.

634
00:54:54.430 --> 00:54:55.570
Lonnie Bedwell: you know. But.

635
00:54:55.570 --> 00:54:56.790
Dave Epstein: Yeah.

636
00:54:58.010 --> 00:55:02.340
Lonnie Bedwell: You know it's and I say that with the aspect of things

637
00:55:02.380 --> 00:55:05.979
Lonnie Bedwell: there's nothing extra special about Ronnie Badwell.

638
00:55:08.170 --> 00:55:10.960
Dave Epstein: You've got great stories to tell. You're getting it done.

639
00:55:10.960 --> 00:55:15.030
Lonnie Bedwell: But in Lonnie bed well, there is a lot of value, and there is a lot of

640
00:55:15.090 --> 00:55:26.250
Lonnie Bedwell: worth, and there is. But but he he's no different in that aspect than you guys. And and it's just this, it's just this thing. If we simply simply

641
00:55:26.510 --> 00:55:27.710
Lonnie Bedwell: help each other.

642
00:55:28.210 --> 00:55:30.649
Lonnie Bedwell: what can we not do.

643
00:55:30.860 --> 00:55:31.750
Lonnie Bedwell: And

644
00:55:31.920 --> 00:55:32.880
Lonnie Bedwell: and that's

645
00:55:35.250 --> 00:55:39.190
Lonnie Bedwell: focus on, you know. There's a statement out there, and I can't tell you who said

646
00:55:40.180 --> 00:55:41.400
Lonnie Bedwell: I said.

647
00:55:44.360 --> 00:55:48.839
Lonnie Bedwell: comparison comparison is the thief of joy

648
00:55:49.140 --> 00:55:56.050
Lonnie Bedwell: by comparing what you do have or don't have, can do or can't do to what other people

649
00:55:56.320 --> 00:56:02.699
Lonnie Bedwell: do have, don't have, can do or can't do. You're robbing yourself of your own gifts, and therefore your own joy.

650
00:56:03.680 --> 00:56:06.480
Lonnie Bedwell: So it once again it falls back under that.

651
00:56:07.940 --> 00:56:09.190
Dave Epstein: okay.

652
00:56:09.600 --> 00:56:10.260
Lonnie Bedwell: Focus.

653
00:56:11.850 --> 00:56:16.090
Lonnie Bedwell: and and your gifts are mine and mine are yours. And that's just yeah.

654
00:56:16.310 --> 00:56:21.939
Dave Epstein: It. It's a philosophy that that brings joy to the heart and soul.

655
00:56:22.823 --> 00:56:25.090
Dave Epstein: It's it's a very much a shared

656
00:56:25.180 --> 00:56:26.560
Dave Epstein: warm

657
00:56:27.720 --> 00:56:31.130
Dave Epstein: feeling and and and philosophy in there, that's huge.

658
00:56:32.410 --> 00:56:39.950
Dave Epstein: Well, you can't get much better than that. I more than you can imagine. Appreciate your time, your experiences.

659
00:56:40.745 --> 00:56:42.469
Dave Epstein: your stories, your

660
00:56:42.560 --> 00:56:44.629
Dave Epstein: where you're bringing us

661
00:56:45.200 --> 00:56:50.670
Dave Epstein: your community, the blind community, forward into the future, where not?

662
00:56:50.920 --> 00:56:54.710
Dave Epstein: Not just where we can be, but where we want to be in life.

663
00:56:54.920 --> 00:57:08.469
Dave Epstein: And you're really quite the inspiration, Lonnie. Thank you so so much for joining us here today. You crossed it before we go. How can we follow you? Do you have a website? We can check in on.

664
00:57:08.470 --> 00:57:29.460
Lonnie Bedwell: Yes, and for example, I have my own personal website called Lonnie bedweldos.com and a Facebook page. That's a public figure you just like it, and and could follow along and put things out there and then for the the climbs that I have continue. There's another website called Sightless Summits.

665
00:57:30.091 --> 00:57:33.220
Lonnie Bedwell: We're going to Antarctica this November.

666
00:57:34.100 --> 00:57:35.484
Lonnie Bedwell: We're going to start

667
00:57:36.020 --> 00:57:41.280
Lonnie Bedwell: I leave the country on the 23, rd get into Antarctica on the 26th of November.

668
00:57:41.490 --> 00:57:48.610
Lonnie Bedwell: Find the highest peak down there. Then ski the last degree to the South Pole, and you can follow along

669
00:57:48.900 --> 00:57:52.459
Lonnie Bedwell: pretty much, you know, daily. We're gonna have GPS trackers on us.

670
00:57:53.028 --> 00:58:04.169
Lonnie Bedwell: and it's gonna be on that siteless summits website. And I'll probably still roll that over a feed on my Facebook page so that people can see where we're at and what we're doing. And

671
00:58:04.730 --> 00:58:07.840
Lonnie Bedwell: and once again, who inspires me, all of you.

672
00:58:07.940 --> 00:58:09.920
Lonnie Bedwell: every single

673
00:58:09.960 --> 00:58:11.730
Lonnie Bedwell: person out. There

674
00:58:11.830 --> 00:58:14.840
Lonnie Bedwell: is where I draw my inspiration from. It's not.

675
00:58:16.530 --> 00:58:19.810
Lonnie Bedwell: it's it's what we all can do.

676
00:58:20.210 --> 00:58:23.200
Lonnie Bedwell: and that's truly what drives me. And

677
00:58:23.530 --> 00:58:24.300
Lonnie Bedwell: oh.

678
00:58:25.350 --> 00:58:26.479
Lonnie Bedwell: so thank you.

679
00:58:26.790 --> 00:58:28.070
Dave Epstein: Lonnie, you're the best.

680
00:58:28.300 --> 00:58:48.210
Dave Epstein: You're the best, and you're you're you're doing great things out there and count on a whole lot of people to be following you down in Antarctica and envious living vicariously through you on your adventures. Lonnie. Appreciate so so very much, want you to have an amazing, amazing experience out there.

681
00:58:48.550 --> 00:58:53.406
Lonnie Bedwell: I appreciate that. And then, once again, I appreciate you this, the platform and and

682
00:58:53.880 --> 00:58:58.858
Lonnie Bedwell: and you doing this podcast. And and I appreciate all of you out there. Who

683
00:58:59.370 --> 00:59:02.090
Lonnie Bedwell: who believe in me and believe in us. So thank you.

684
00:59:03.130 --> 00:59:05.240
Dave Epstein: And gentlemen, Lonnie Bedwell.