[nfbmi-talk] An Interesting Observation

[Larry D. Keeler]

I found this thing just interesting.  Those of you who know me sometimes may think I'm a little slow or maybe a little bizarre at times.  This is because I'm very observant as far as speech and how it reflects the psychology of what was said.  So, sometimes I appear to talk slowly because I'm thinking about what I have heard or experienced.  My son was out to his Grandmas house.  This is my mother-in-law.  She never grew up with me and my wife Carol, has never had a probblem with her sight unless she sees something different in my ugly mug!  No, I guess that's a matter of taste not of sight!  Well, I mentioned all of this as background to a remark that my son made while watching a movie.  I'm not sure what the thing was but it had a dude doing the face feeling thing with a woman.  Probably the stereotypical thing we've always heard about.  Grandma made some coment about how blind folks do that to "see" other people.  In a very firm voice my son piped up and said, "Dad never does that!"  Grandma actually had to think about it before she aggreed.  When Steven and Grandma came home Grandma asked me.  I said that I didn't need to do that because it looks goofy doing that and the last time I did Steven was born!  This is ment to cause some to chuckle but the other point is that my kids have learned from example that most of the stereotypical stuff is just that.  My daughter attended MSD after what little of the school for the blind moved there.  She helped blind students some and was familiar with how to help.  One of Virginias friends friends was really adamant about blind people cooking.  She said that not only could they cook but her Dad, a man, mE!! cooked her favorite food!  She finally won the argument by bringing the girl over for dinner during the summer.  She had two large helpings!  And, I put her to work as well!  These examples show how role modeling and just doing teach others how to think of blindness.  
Intelligence is always claimed but rarely proven!