understanding where you are coming from

 

Who among us can honestly say they understand what causes another person to behave in the way they do? 

I feel so much kinship to my Black brothers and sisters in their struggle for Freedom.  Yet, their collective experiences are a wall between us and I can never truly understand what it feels like to be Black. 

I have worked with women in their efforts to break through the glass ceiling.  But I would never dream of trying to lead such a movement.  Try as I might I can never know what society feels like to a woman. 

And no matter how hard our sighted loved ones try to understand and support us, they will never feel what it is to be blind.  To be blind in a world that worships it's eyes.  Where sight is King. 

The eye is to Man what the nose is to Dog.  It so dominates our other senses as to render them almost incidental. 

It would be easier to leap the Grand Canyon than to bridge the chasm that exists between the World of the Sighted and the Land of the Blind. 

Understanding that we do not understand each other is a good beginning.  It gets us past having to pretend that we know what the other person is feeling. 

The hard part is understanding that the reaction from the other person is not directed at me, but toward their own stereotype of which I am the current representative. 

Once I am able to do this, I will no longer feel the need to judge all people of that particular minority by the actions of this one individual.  Then, to myself I might say, "What a rude person", or "Obviously they misunderstood my intentions.  Thank God I don't have to live with them."  It's no longer a question of a rude blind person or a pushy black person or the Bitch from Hell.  I don't measure all waitresses by the rude, indifferent treatment of that Witch over at Denny's.  And I don't judge all hunters by the fellow who just tossed an empty six pack out his truck window onto my road...although this one is a struggle. 

Breaking away from the many stereotypes will only happen when we are able to meet each other on a personal, one on one basis.  Then it will no longer matter if we are blind or sighted, black or white, male or female or any other combination.  Let's work at not taking the lazy way out by hiding behind a convenient stereotype.  Let's begin seeing each person as a unique individual. 

 

Curious Carl