Monday, April 18, 2011

Great things about being blind. I'm blind and proud of it!

I was listening to one of my favourite disability podcasts last night from the BBC.
www.bbc.co.uk/ouch
They had some stand up comics with disabilities on the show from around the world.
In the course of the conversation, one of them said they weren't proud of their disability.  They were proud of the things they accomplished even though they had the disability.   The other two both instantly said they were proud of their disabilities.  I thought about this for myself.  It didn't take me long to say definitively that I am proud to be blind.  I love it!  sure, not all of the time but most of the time!  It allows me to write this blog, gives me great storytelling material, and much more.  It has allowed me to be a paralympian, meet all kinds of wonderful people, live with wonderful guide dogs, and I could go on and on.  Many people assume that if I was offered the chance of full vision, I would jump at it.  I would not!  I've been blind since birth.  Blind is normal.  Seeing would be terrifying.  I wouldn't know what anything was.  I wouldn't know how to read or write.  Sure, I'm curious in a way about how things look but I am not pining away for vision, waiting for some miracle cure!  I don't need a cure!  I'm not sick!  I'm blind.  In these days of political correctness, I've heard my blindness described as:
visually impaired (my vision is not impaired because I have none)
visually challenged
A person with no vision
sight disabled
sight impaired
And probably many others I can't think of now.
I'm blind.  I'm totally blind.  I'm proud of it!

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