Fwd: Peace on Earth, good will to All

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2016 14:47:10 -0800
Subject: Peace on Earth, good will to All
To: wcb-l <wcb-l@wcbinfo.org>

One of those, "Forever" discussions seems to center on our reaction as
blind people, to the curious and often nosy questions like, what is it
like being blind, or how do we tie our shoestrings, or is everything
all black, or do we "see" in our dreams? The questions are endless
and for some blind people, they are annoying as all get out. And so
the debate flows and ebbs. Some say we must remember that most
questions are from people who honestly want to know what it is like to
live life as a blind person. Other blind people believe it is rude
for folks to pry into their lives with questions that the asker would
not want to answer themselves. While it is easy to admonish ourselves
to be tolerant, we are, after all, mere mortals.
One man's comfort zone is another man's war zone. Today I answer
questions, and offer explanations that once would have embarrassed me
or would have seemed superfluous. Of course it helped to finally
learn to spell "superfluous".
But at 81 years of age, I am flattered if a young person gets in my
face and wants to know, "How you do it". Of course my standard answer
is, "In the Dark". But since this question could be the opening for
educational conversation, I follow up my sarcasm with a question of my
own. I might say, "Tell me how you think eyesight is involved in,
"Doing It"?"
When presenting to young students, I might receive a silly question
from the class clown. "How do you know you're not putting on your
wife's panty hose instead of your socks?" Lots of giggles from the
students.
"Now that is a very good question", I answer, putting an instant stop
to the smirks and chuckles. "It tells me that you are so in need of
your eyesight that you can't imagine trying to put on your socks
without it. Let's try something right now. Slip out of your shoes
and pull off your socks, and then, closing your eyes tightly, see if
you can pull the socks back on." Usually a number of students try
this, declaring their surprise that, in fact, they can pull on their
socks with their eyes closed.
Of course this is not something you could do in public, when accosted
by some casual acquaintance, but it's a powerful teaching technique.
Get folks involved in "seeing" a situation from your side of
blindness.
About 15 years after that stocking lesson, I was coming home from work
when a voice called out, "Mister Jarvis!" I turned around and a young
man rushed up to me. "I just wanted to say hello. I was in the class
when you had us take off our socks and put them on with our eyes
closed. I just wanted to thank you for doing that. I try that
often...whenever I wonder how a blind man might do something." After
so many years, I was humbled that this young man had actually learned
a valuable lesson...how to walk in another person's shoes.

Carl Jarvis