The road to First Class Citizenship is a rocky, difficult trail.

An honest offer of assistance is always welcome.  But it's not always as simple as assistance offered and offer accepted. 

Because many of us blind folk are overly sensitive, we read too much into the offer.  Perhaps it's because we've been trick or treated in the past.  You know, someone leaps ahead of us to "help" in order to make themselves look important.  That sort of help is all about them, not you.  Or maybe it's because we were so over protected as children that we have come to believe that any offer of assistance is stealing our independence from us.  And of course, some of us believe accepting an offer of help is a sign of weakness and dependence. 

It seems to be a Cross we Blind People must bear.  All around us other folks are offering and accepting help with no thought about what it means.  In some cases the offer is understood to carry more to it than just an offer.  Like the boy who offers to carry home the book bag of the pretty classmate.  She and he both understand that this means more than him being chauvinistic. 

But what if the girl had been pawed over by her older brother, her step dad and the dirty old school master?  Now the offer takes on ugly under tones.  She is naturally going to assume it is the first step to getting into her pants.  Her class mate never has a clue as to why she slammed her book bag into his crotch and ran down the street.  She is a victim of her conditioning.  And so, far too often, are we blind folks victims of ours. 

The road to First Class Citizenship is a rocky, difficult trail. 

 

Curious Carl