My Bad Blind Self

 
I started this blog over two years ago, where has the time gone? But it was all about me, me and my bad self and my experience with blindness. I’ve grown as I’ve written both as a person, a disabled person a writer and a commentator on the human condition. I like to think I’ve changed dramatically over the past couple of years.
Honestly earlier this year I was struggling what to write, who would be interested, where do I take it from here. God must have heard my consternation and confusion as I was provided with one of those life changing discussions those very few times in your life when you feel like God has sat you down and told you what your about and what your going to do. Really it was that blunt, I was very taken aback and its taken me a number of weeks to digest things enough to start writing about them.
In my “Ah Huh!!” discussion I had it explained to me bluntly that I was doing cool things with my writing but that I wasn’t only writing about myself, I was writing about blind people in general. As the discussion progressed it became clear that I wasn’t only writing about visually impaired and blind people but I was writing about all disabled people.
The “Ah Hah’s” didn’t stop. I’ve had a few things happen recently that have motivated me to continue the introspection about where is “Blind Man Can” going and what can I do to have more impact. I’m heavy into a documentary, “What to do when you meet a visually impaired or blind person”, the documentary will be made available for free on Vimeo and YouTUBE. You’ll also have the opportunity to order the documentary on DVD as well. There will also be a number of short video’s showing some of the technology I use and other topics. I’m also considering new names for the blog or a new blog entirely to talk about disability issues in general.
The discussions haven’t stopped either, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve been writing about all of us. Not only those who are visibly disabled but those who are invisibly disabled and those who are yet to be disabled. I started writing about me after all its all about me right? Sharing my experience with blindness I’ve come to understand that what I’m talking about isn’t only about blindness its about all people with disability be that disability visible or invisible or disability yet to come.
The catalyst event for me was my discussion with Patrick Hammond, we’re working together and we sat down to discuss the project. We didn’t talk about the project much but Patrick started me on a journey that continues. Patrick paid me a compliment he called me a writer and commentator, titles both I’m not accustomed to having. I’m now realizing he might be right, I’m very much still getting used to the idea. Although with some of the drafts for posts I have in work he might be right. Patrick challenged me, not a place I’m at all to often. People are often too polite to challenge a person with a disability, we’re fragile you know. Patrick has challenged me to describe the human condition and what and how the human condition is affected by disability. No small task I can assure you, but as I’ve come to realize, to anchor my self esteem I’ve had to do a lot of thinking about what many things mean and their impact on us as people. As always I promise more soon. There is no reason to assume that I have any definitive answers to anything but I have enough to add to continue the discussion and at the very least inject some humor into things.
Patrick and I started the discussion and the thinking, the following catalyst thoughts Patrick gave to me:
1) Disability is universal. (There is no central group in society that is completely healed, healthy or whole. No “big brother” group of “walkers” or whatever term disability activists use to frame their opponents. EVERYONE is struggling with something, whether it’s visible
or not.)
2) Disability is inevitable. (No use being afraid of disability, it comes to all of us sooner or later as we get older, no matter how careful we are.)
3) Disability is okay. (It’s a natural part of the human experience, and causes us to rely on one another and bear with one another. Human inter-dependence may be untidy, but it’s healthy.)
The quandary, what is disability and what is the human condition? What do we say to those that want to weed out disability, the genetic engineers, doctors? What do we say to those that say persons with disability are too far gone from the human condition, disability causes too much pain in an individuals life so that individual shouldn’t exist? The gauntlet has been thrown the challenge offered. We’ll see where it goes.