Here I am again, dear readers. It hasn't been quite as long since last time around, and I hope to be back on a semi-regular schedule finally. Today was a wonderful day, both weather-wise and in other senses of the word. I believe I've a handle on how I want to approach these last few weeks of the term, which is a great burden off my shoulders.
So, with the weather being as wonderful as it was this evening I thought I would take a little stroll outside after dinner. I didn't have anywhere in particular in mind, but ended up outside Weatherford Hall, one of the dorms on campus close to mine. There's a nice wooden bench there, which I decided might get some sunshine. As it turns out, it didn't, but I sat there anyway.
The title of this post pretty much sums up what I did, I watched, or listened, to the world go by around me. This was a profoundly relaxing experience. I could hear birds of several kinds, people walking by, and eventually the wind blowing the leaves on the trees about. There were also plenty of cars, skateboards, and at least one airplane.
A part of me was hoping that someone might stop by and say hello while I was doing this. I had nowhere in particular to go and was determined to stay around for a good length of time. Nobody did. I'd like to think that if I'd been doing this in, say, Georgia, someone might have.
There's a tendency in our modern society to hurry. We think that if we don't get things done as soon as possible, the world will fall apart around us. We don't really talk to one another as much as we used to, before the advent of cell phones. I can imagine with curious nostalgia, for I was never there, what it might have been like in the time when the phone was a giant thing sitting on a hall table. I'd hope we talked more with one another then, and maybe took things just a little slower.
Of course, all this might also have something to do with the age old problem I face. I'm blind, people know that, and because they don't know how to approach me or are afraid of offending me they simply don't bother. I hope it was perhaps a combination of those two factors, ideally more the latter than the former.
I am a profoundly old-fashioned person. I have deep misgivings about our current dependence on technology and what it is doing to the world around us. This is at least ironic, since I depend so much on it for my every day existence. I would not have been able to thrive in the hypothetical world I described.
It is because I depend so much on this modernity that I intend to try and spend at least a little of every day outside, doing nothing in particular. I imagine it'll be good for my health, and who knows, I might meet someone. My request for you all this time is to try and do the same. I think it will benefit everybody, blind or otherwise. Remember also that just because I'm blind doesn't mean I'm unapproachable or easily offended. I look forward to many pleasant encounters with you all.