Speaker for the Blind

It has been a while, dear readers.  I'm sorry I've not been better at keeping this blog up to date.  Last week in particular was chock full of personal drama I didn't care for in the least, and I really couldn't summon the energy to write.  This week, so far, seems to be going much better, and so here we are.  I'm just sitting here on a Monday evening waiting for my laundry to finish.  No, I haven't read the whole Ender series.

Something happened this afternoon in one of my classes which I thought I should write about.  A girl came up to me and asked me a question--it was about whether or not I'd always been blind.  I told her that yes, I have, and we had a pleasant chat for a few minutes afterwards until she and I both had to leave.  Why is this meaningful?  I've been seeing this girl in class twice a week for five weeks now.  She didn't ask me until today, for any number of possible reasons.  I suspect, however, that a lot of it was fear of offending me.  I don't offend easily, and I like to think I'm an open book, within reason.  I want people to engage with me and ask questions if they have them, because I imagine most people haven't met many blind people before, and don't have any idea what it's all about.  More generally, I just want people to spend time with me the same way they do sighted people.

I say "engage with me," because in general it is up to you to initiate a conversation.  I have absolutely no way of reading your visual body language to tell me that you're interested or curious or bored out of your mind.  If you take the first step, we can go on from there.  I wish more people would.  The title of this post came to me when I realized I was playing the role of an ambassador of sorts for the blind community at large, which is a little paradoxical considering my somewhat strained relationship with it.  Look for a future post on exactly why that is.  My point, dear reader, is that I want social interaction and friendship and even romance as much as the next guy, but you might need to take the first step.  So that's what I want to invite anybody who feels up to it to do.  Comment here, email me, say hi in class or on the street or whatever.  You might be surprised, and I'd sure appreciate it.