Last weekend a friend of mine died and this afternoon I attended his funeral/memorial service.

Leonard was a clinical psychologist and practitioner of transactional analysis.

At todays memorial a small pamphlet on Leonard was available for all of us to take and keep as part of our memory of him.

One thing in the pamphlet jumped out at me - Leonard's List of the Senses, which were listed as:

- Movement

- Hearing

- Touch

- Smell

- Taste

- Sight

- Balance

- Time

- Direction

- Humour

- Discovery

I couldn't help but reflect on how this list of senses compared to the four abilities associated with this weeks challenge (vision, hearing, mobility, dexterity). I thought it was so wonderful, and so Leonard, to add time, direction, humour, and discovery to our traditional concept of the senses. A sense of humour or no sense of time are common expressions, yet we don't usually consider them as true senses. To Leonard they were and I can't help but wonder how inclusion of them would factor in to principles of universal design and the continuum of functioning. For example, what would the continuum of functioning be for the sense of humour? And where am I on that continuum? Or time, or direction, or, best of all, discovery? This is a conversation Leonard would have loved to take part in and so in memory of him I thought I'd add it to the discussion.

Paul