Over the past few weeks, Lyle and I have attended more than our usual share of social functions. I like chatting with people and so it has been great. The hard part is not being able to recognize just whom I am chatting with unless they identify themselves before the conversation gets underway.
There are some people I can identify by the sound of their voice or even their laugh, and others have a distinctive aspect of their physical appearance, but by and large, I rely on people to tell me their name. It’s interesting to me that even when people know that I have limited vision, it doesn’t occur to them that I am unable to immediately see and recognize them. I am truly grateful to friends and acquaintances who don’t fall into that category and who identify themselves by name whenever we meet.
On the other side of the coin, there are those rather obtuse folk who, knowing of my limited vision, come up to me and say things like, “You must know who I am. Listen to my voice. Can you guess who I am?” I won’t write of my initial instinctive response to this kind of ignorance. I try to remind myself that my job is not to respond in anger but to try to educate.
Once, when I was researching the history of education for people who are blind and partially sighted, I came across the following quotation.
“In order to educate the blind, we must first educate the sighted.”
In a way, I am hoping that is what I am doing with this blog. Until I became partially sighted myself, I gave little thought to the path taken by people who couldn’t see. I had never personally met someone who was blind and had no idea of what challenges were involved in his or her daily life. Hopefully the words of this blog can give a small insight into that world.
My very best wishes to everyone for a happy year in 2023. May we meet and greet each other with affection as we establish new relationships with one another.
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