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From: Ken St. Louis
Date: 17 Oct 2005
Time: 04:17:59 -0500
Remote Name: 195.138.141.153
Dear Jenn, You ask a good question. "Why didn't I include some the depressing stories?" The answer has three parts. These stories were originally obtained as a personal agreement between one of my students and someone they found who stuttered (or used to stutter). As I indicated, we *later* decided to see if some of them would be interested in putting their personal stories "out there" for anyone to read. I did not want to ask a person whose stuttering was a source of terrible embarrassment or pain to be that sort of potential spectacle. That being said, there are a few stories of people in the book who did not obtain very good control of their stuttering, but they were essentially satisfied with their lives at the time. The second reason, as you stated, was to provide hope to those people who probably would not agree to put their stories in the limelight. The third reason is that Populore Publishing Company has as one of its missions to publish the sort of stories of ordinary people that serve to preserve the sort of memories that are positive--as opposed to the sort of information that fills the pages of tabloids. As you begin your practice, you will have many people for whom a communication disorder is a source of great difficulty, suffering, and pain. These people put tremendous trust in you, and you will repay much of that trust by your competent treatment. If stuttering is the issue, and if reading some uplifting stories might help, feel free to share some of the stories from "Living With Stuttering" with them. By the way, the book was published five years ago. Thanks. Ken