I’d Rather Be Blind

I was riding in the car this morning with my daughter to the next city over for an appointment for her Urology PT (yes, there is such a thing) and we got to talking about beling blind.  This rarely happens where my daughter is interested in discussing anything about her, which has caused me to learn to approach things from a tangent.   If I can get her talking about one thing, she may well open up and let me into her world of blindness.   Approached directly, she just shuts down.

This morning I told her about a YouTube channel I watched that was a man who was blind from birth.  He is charismatic and a happy guy and enjoyable to listen to.  In this particular hour-long video he went through questions from the comments in his social media accounts.   I thought my daughter might be interested in both the questions and his answer.

One of them was about "watching" YouTube videos, television shows, and films—how could he do so without sight?   He talked about not necessarily needing to see to understand most things and talked about using descriptive audio and how it was a good thing and helpful for things that weren't as much dialog-based.  My daughter said, "I watch shows too, just like me!"  She felt less alone I got the sense, knowing that someone else watched things like she did.  

Next, I told her about how he commonly, frequently even, had people try and help him across streets. He's had people stop and get out of their cars to help him cross a street he crosses on a regular basis with no assistance.   He is always grateful for the help and typically doesn't even let them know the help was unneeded.  

My daughter asked about his cane or if he had a dog and I admitted I wasn't sure.  He mentioned his cane several times but never talked about a dog.   My daughter confirmed something I've been assuming for some time now when she said, "I'll have a dog.  I want a dog."   We talked about how they were expensive to train but that when the time came when she was older, we would certainly look into it more if she still felt strongly about having a sighted guide dog.

Then I told her about the question he got asked all the time.   He was born completely blind but people want to know if he could be sighted, would he want to?  He said he's gone back and forth one. He sometimes says yes, but he doesn't see the need for sight since he knows how to do everything blind.   He's been in radio for over thirty years and is completely self-sufficient.   Sometimes though, he thinks it would be interesting to see what this seeing thing is all about.   My daughter said, "I'd rather be blind too."  I was surprised to hear her say this, especially since she used to be able to see.  She added a second later, "well, with a little bit of vision."   I think the last bit of residual vision she has is useful to her and she doesn't want to lose it.

I told her if she wanted to listen to the interview with me, I'd be glad to play it for her.   She is interested.  I think she'd like hearing about another blind person and how they live.   Especially someone who is so positive about their blindness and a life lived being blind.

The Big Boy Update:  My son loves messing with his sister when she's sleeping.   I don't know what it is, he's not being malicious, he's just interested in her and I think wants to know what it takes to wake her up.   He's done this multiple times in the past weeks since she's had her shifted sleep schedule and has been falling asleep early in the main areas of the house.   She dislikes being messed with (having blankets put on her, removed, arms repositioned, face touched, etc.). My son got a consequence for it today.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  One thing I mentioned that Tommy Edison (the blind man who's channel I've been watching) said one thing he couldn't understand is how we sighted people keep our eyes open all day.  He said it must be exhausting.   He has his eyes closed almost all the time.   He can keep them open for about a minute before his eyelids get too tired.   My daughter thought this was really interesting and said she keeps her eyes closed some of the time too.