Stories From My Commute: The Ridiculous Things People Say

Envision a blind woman walking along the sidewalk on a moderately busy city street using a cane. The sidewalk has cracks and bumps in it and there are some oddly placed poles. A male, whom she does not know, approaches on her right and passes her. As he does, he says, “You should really practice walking on this route.” Really? This was one time when I couldn’t think fast enough to say anything. Thankfully, I ran into him again about a week later. He had the nerve to say to me “you’re doing good today.” I said, well when you lose your vision or one of your other senses, then you can judge, but until then be thankful for what you have. After all, you’re going to get older and it’s going to happen to more people like you. And I think you’ll find that the world isn’t all that set up for you. All things considered, I think I was pretty nice. Humor me, and picture a blind woman moving through a crowded train station built decades ago. The trains rumble in with high pitch squeaks. Sounds echo and people are moving in all different directions. A woman comes face-to-face with the blind woman and says “watch out”. Really? I am not sensitive to language as a general rule. I ‘saw’ the item in the news, and I ‘watch’ movies. I can concede that no other warning jumped to the woman’s mind; maybe she hadn’t had her morning shot of caffeine. It’s also possible that she wasn’t all that bright, or was unaware of what the cane meant. After all, there can still be some shock associated with blind people moving about in society.