Seeing Blindness

Hello. I didn’t know what kind of blog to write on Christmas Eve. First, I thought about a poem about blindness, but then I realized my lack of talent as far as poetry is concerned probably signaled this wasn’t a good idea. And so, I decided to write about blindness in another way based on my thoughts during the past several days. The question for us to ponder is this. Why do some seem to believe that it is not okay to use our vision? In order to answer, we must first get a couple of definitions out of the way so that we are all on the same page.
A belief is an idea that seems true. A hope is a desire based on this belief, and thus, it is the fuel of belief. Blindness is a lack of vision. To be clear about blindness, it represents a total lack of vision, a small degree of vision, and on up the continuum until the point at which this inability to see disappears. In other words, blindness means the inability to see well enough to perform a task using eyesight safely and effectively.
First, let’s talk about belief since it is a key part of the answer to our demanding question about why we shouldn’t use that vision, if indeed we shouldn’t. When you were a kid, did you believe in Santa Claus. If so, you acted a certain way come Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. During Christmas Eve, you probably bounced around the house so excited your parent or guardian wished you would hurry up and fall asleep or that Christmas was past so that the peaceful, angelic child would return. During the next morning, you expected to wake up and find Santa had filled your stocking and/or had placed gifts for you under the tree. Right? Yes, well, what does this all have to do with blindness? Your actions were based on what you believed to be the case, and your expectations reflected this belief. Excitement occurred due to your hope of a special visitor in the night leaving gifts, and since you just knew it to be true that he would come, you never once considered you might wake up to an empty stocking or lack of gifts. I once taught a senior who believed that he was going to receive his sight any day, and the hope that fueled this belief caused him to act in a certain way, a way that included no motivation to learn alternative techniques because what was the point if he was going to see again. Can you see how this expectation of receiving his sight prevented him from moving forward as a blind person? Evidence to the contrary was the only thing that was going to force him to act as a blind person, an important way to act since he was blind and needed to act in a way that not only allowed him to live a happy life, but that would keep him safe in the process.
Let’s talk more about how our beliefs drive our actions. If you are sighted and you fall asleep, you will expect to wake up in the morning able to glance over at your clock for the time and able to dress yourself. You don’t acknowledge this belief. You know it to be true just like you knew Santa would arrive bearing gifts, and so you act on this knowledge without thought of its validity.
However, what if you woke up blind? Then, what would you believe? Remember our beliefs affect our actions, and our hopes fuel our beliefs. If you believed blindness meant helplessness, one might conclude you would panic. The thing to note here is that this is a different situation from what you are used to, and oftentimes, when we face situations that are unfamiliar to us, we are afraid. To compound that fact, your belief is a result of what you have learned about blindness from the society in which you live. Everyone believes blindness means helplessness; it must be true. Right? Many children believe in Santa Claus; that means he must be real. Right?
To get back on track, your belief about having no vision affects what you think you can do, and what you think you can do is the same as saying what you know you can do. Have you ever been wrong about something? I certainly have. Just when I thought I was right about knowing a thing, someone had to come up with evidence to prove me entirely wrong. That’s kind of how it happened with Santa. I don’t bounce around the house like an out-of-control Tigger these days, expecting great surprises in the morning because evidence has clearly presented itself that Santa was conceived by the goodwill of another, and thus, this spirit of goodwill is really being performed by my parent as a way of remembering how a gentleman gave to a family during one lonesome Christmas long ago. Might I suggest that you could be wrong about blindness meaning helplessness? I’ll not present the evidence here for you though because my mission is to tell you why I believe that learning to function totally without vision is essential just as learning to use your remaining vision is essential. The reason for learning about how to function without sight is so that you will believe you are safe based on proven evidence and not based on the false belief that you have just enough vision to miss that hole just up ahead.
Imagine a container filled with nails. You are a carpenter, and it is your job to build a platform to hold the children when they perform their upcoming Christmas play. The container is only half filled with nails. Does this present a problem for you? The answer depends on whether or not the missing nails are necessary or simply desired by you. My carpentry skills are sorely lacking here, but there could be a reason you could use extra nails in the masterpiece platform you are to construct. But, most certainly, there are definite places for the nails that are required, those nails that must be placed or else the whole thing will break and all those precious children will tumble to the ground and lawyers will start knocking on that oak door you privately installed in your own home.
For the sake of argument, let us assume that all nails are required and that the cup really should be filled to the top instead of only half filled. The dilemma is that it is still only half filled. What are you going to do? Well, knowing what the project requires means you know the nails are required. Thus, you will do what it takes to fill the container. Right? Your conclusion about what to do is based on justifiable evidence you have collected as a skilled carpenter who has spent time researching and learning his craft. Sounds simple. But, what if the carpenter was new on the job and his belief relied on evidence based on what he heard those around him claim, many of whom were intelligent people? Everyone claimed the same thing. Missing nails weren’t important, and so he would just act as if they weren’t needed. He’d focus only on using the nails he could see and hope things turned out for the best. As a result, a disaster would be in his immediate future.
Let’s relate this a bit to blindness. The nails in the container that can be seen by the carpenter represent vision, and the empty space represents blindness. Remember, our question is why some believe that it is not okay to use vision. I believe it is okay to use vision, but in order to use vision, we must know how much of it fills the container and we must realize how much of the container is filled with blindness because my belief is that being aware of the entire contents of the container is essential in order to prevent disaster. Let’s say it like this, your container represents your absolute amount of vision, which unfortunately, for this example, means it only is three fourths filled. In order to walk safely across the room, you will need the container completely filled. If you only have the container three fourths filled, this presents you with a problem. Are you going to be like the carpenter and decide it doesn’t matter; you’ll just use what you have. The answer sounds kind of obvious now, I hope, but unfortunately, too many people who cannot see well enough to perform a task safely and efficiently do not realize they are missing vision because they are too busy focusing on the amount of vision they do have. Why be glum when you can look at your container as half filled or even three fourths filled? The reason, my friends, is because the missing portion is just as needed as the present portion, and in order to live happily and safely, you must address the total contents of the container. This is why I believe that as teachers, professionals, and caregivers for visually impaired children and adults, it is our responsibility to teach these visually impaired or partially sighted individuals how to function as a blind person and how to use their usable vision effectively. In order to know their usable vision, they must also know how much of it is not usable. In other words, they must be able to look through the container and realize how much is missing. Perhaps, you are your own caregiver; either way, the focus must be on the entire contents of the container, vision and blindness.
A barrier in attaining this goal, my friends, is that that missing portion isn’t too fun to focus on because it symbolizes helplessness because the ignorant public have told you this. Like the inexperienced carpenter, you have not learned about blindness and performed research; you simply believe what others claim to be truth. I challenge you to learn alternative techniques in order to place some focus on the blindness portion of your container because, by doing so, you will be addressing and acting upon those missing nails, the ones so needed to prevent the disaster from happening.
So, for a person who is just losing sight or just accepting the loss of vision, it is not okay to use vision because it is necessary to first learn how to complete tasks without it. Doing so enables the person to determine just how much vision is in the container because he or she will be focusing on what isn’t there. By locating these nails, so to speak, he or she can use them in place of or exchange them for nails in the vision portion of the container. For example, one could use the sound of the boiling to alert one to the time when to put the pasta into the pot or one could use vision to see the bubbles as long as both nails were present. But, if one nail was missing, whether it be the hearing of the boiling or the seeing of the bubbles, then the situation requires one to locate the equivalent nail to place in the container because all nails must be present since they are all required to do the job. Please note that I said all nails and not just the nails representing blindness. After a person has learned how to use alternative techniques, then I believe it is necessary for him or her to learn how to use vision effectively or how to increase its amount in the container, if possible. I suggest this second because relying on and learning how to use vision is ordinary to humans, and beginning with this goal will most certainly ensure that one forgets to notice the missing nails, or missing vision, one must also address. In addition, the eyes automatically try to se, and in order to stop this automatic response, vision must not be used, which is why I suggest eyeshade training because seeing is an automatic response of the brain. After eyeshade training is complete and the individual is comfortable with using alternative techniques of blindness, one will be informed enough to make reliable judgments about his or her amount of vision in a safe and effective manner, and then visual aids and eyesight can be paired with appropriate alternative techniques to improve quality of life.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of you. Remember that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins and for yours, and so if you aren’t saved, He is waiting for you to reach out and claim your gift He is offering to you, whether it be on Christmas day or any other day of the year. It is His desire for you to live eternally with Him. Please take a moment to learn more about Him in the Holy Bible because, if you do, you may find that there are even more nails that were so needed in your life that you didn’t even realize they were missing. God Bless, and remember, Jesus loves you, even if you don’t believe it.