[stylist] NEW THOUGHT PROVOKER #146- Blindness Makes Your otherSenses Stronger

[Shelley J. Alongi]

I can't count the number of times I've heard the phrase that blindness makes 
my senses stronger. It's usually quoted by people who don't understand the 
organization of sensory perceptions. That would be just about anybody. I am 
not entirely convinced that blindness makes ones senses stronger, I am of 
the strong opinion that as a blind person I can more affectively organize my 
surroundings by sensory perception. Smell is a bit deceptive however, 
especially if one is passing a shopping center and realizes that marketers 
use fake smells to gather people to particular spots. I suppose a pet store 
is not yet a manufactured smell, but give marketers time they'll come up 
with that one. But darn it if I'm walking by Jack's Doughnuts in the 
morning, I know it not by smell, but by the location next to Subway which 
always tends to smell like fresh bread. The doughn ut shop is identifiable 
most days by its open door and knot of Spanish speaking older men 
congregating outside it's door or just inside at the small round tables. Now 
Starbucks is a different story entirely! The smell of coffee once the store 
is entered is overpowering, and the music coming from its outside speakers 
is also a big giveaway. OH and it is located on the L-shaped corner of the 
intersection nearest work and has remained there for quite some time. I do 
think however that if it ever moved locations it wouldn't be hard to find.

What about touch and sound! This comes from personal experience from having 
cats, since we were talkinga bout cats. First things first, I can't stand 
the fact of bells on my cats. I do not want to hear them. There is one blind 
person I know who says that despite having a bell on her cat, the cat is 
sometimes undetectable. It must be, if we want to stereotype, due to the 
fact that cats are good hunters and know how to disguise their whereabouts. 
I am perfectly ok with the fact of my cats hiding themselves. They will come 
to me when they want me and if I think they've gotten out, well, they're not 
goign to identify themselves because it's a cat/human game. Can she find me? 
Cats play tricks on their sighted owners, too, just ask them...the owners, 
not the cats. I do have one cat who meows when I walk in the same room where 
she is currently making herself queen, but that's only if she watns me. the 
other cat just figures I'm goign to bed eventually and she'll wait ill I'm 
there before sneaking up to say hello. Well, I'll take that back. She will 
come rub herself against me, but it's always on her terms. I don't know if 
the cat knows I'm blind or not, someone will have to ask her. I'm sure 
Brandy has a well thought out answer.

I dont' know about color. People have often asked me if I know color. I 
don't have a visual concept of color though I do think visually. I do 
however associate colors with different moods. My favorite color is red. 
That's another essay entirely. Feeling color? Definitely not. I did have a 
friend ask me as we were in our local Target store if knowing the color of 
storage containers was helpful. We were looking at clear containers and 
purple ones. I said what the color told me was thaat the container wasn't 
boring. We both thought that was pretty funny. I ended up, by the way, 
buying the clear ones because I thought they were more sturdy. If that same 
container would have been available in purple I definietly would have bouth 
it.

Smelling coffee and using it as an identifying characteristic? Perhaps. I 
once knew a blind person who thought the smell of molasses was a new 
perfume. No, I said, it's molasses in one of those premade oatmeal packages 
you can purchase in a supermarket. Do you think his sense of smell 
accurately informed him of what the object was? No. I can't imagine any 
marketer using molasses as a base for a perfume. Yuck! However, I can always 
find the cat's litter box, chuckles.

Listening to traffic to help guide me? Yes. Finding a building by getting an 
echo read on it? Not intensionally though I may be using this practice and 
don't know it.

Well, guys it's time for bed. So I'll go locate my computer tower using my 
sense of touch, go through the place and make sure all is put away by using 
touch to tell me if something is clean, or clutter free. I'll then retire to 
my bed and hopefully find a kitty there. I'll know she's there by the feel 
of her weight as she jumps up on my bed and flings herself against me as if 
to say, well, mom it's about time. Pearl will join us eventually and we'll 
all be happily snuggled in one big famly bed. AFter all they know who feeds 
them and they know I know how to find them. How I do that is probably a huge 
combination of organized sensory perceptions, and perhaps a bit of thinking 
like they do. yes, the blind human is outnumbered by the sighted, sneaky 
cats.
Shelley J. Alongi
Home Office: (714)869-3207
**
To read essays on my journey through Metrolink 111 or other interests click 
on 
http://www.storymania.com/cgibin/sm2/smshowauthorbox.cgi?page=&author=AlongiSJ&alpha=A

updated May 9, 2009
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Newman" <newmanrl at cox.net>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2009 2:03 PM
Subject: [stylist] NEW THOUGHT PROVOKER #146- Blindness Makes Your 
otherSenses Stronger


> Writers, here is my newest THOUGHT PROVOKER.
>
> This TP is about that age old question/stereo typical ignorant/well 
> meaning
> thought that if you go blind, your other senses get sharper, stronger. I 
> bet
> most of you out there who are blind have experienced this one. And so what
> do you say? How do you explain it?
>
> THOUGHT PROVOKER 146
> Blindness Makes Your Other Senses Stronger
>
> "Blindness has made your other senses stronger," said my friend.
>
> "How many times have I heard that one? Let me count the ways." I was out
> running errands and had bumped into a friend. She hadn't seen me for a
> while; once after I was newly blinded, going through lots of heartache and
> adjustment, But not since blindness training. Our conversation had started
> out with catching up, then too predictably morphed exclusively into my
> blindness. This "blindness and senses" thing had come as I was trying to
> change the topic by mentioning I could smell Lilacs.
>
> Back on task, I got moving; had many errands to complete before heading
> home. The reunion with my friend had occurred in an open-air courtyard,
> nestled in the center of a local shopping mall. Re-entering the roofed
> section, still thinking about my friend's opinion that my sense of smell 
> was
> keener than the norm, I started giving my cane an extra hard tap. My
> immediate goal was a pet store and knowing from past trips, that its door
> was recessed, I knew I could locate it if I could get a good echo read on
> it.
>
> "May I help you?" A woman's voice in my path startled me. Then an opening
> door to the right brought the sound of birds and puppies.
>
> "ah, thanks, no." Pointing to the pet store. "I just heard what I'm 
> looking
> for."
>
> "Oh --- ah," the woman responded, first in puzzlement, then realization. 
> "I
> am always so amazed what you people can hear!"
>
> In the store- "I've heard that some of you can feel color." Says the sales
> clerk. I was rubbing the cloth of a cat blanket between thumb and
> forefinger; she had come over to answer a few questions I had.
>
> In a different Isle, lifting a package of cat treats to my nose for a 
> quick
> smell (knowing how picky my cat Catty is), I jerked it away. Thinking, "OH
> MY GOD, get caught, she's going to ask me if you want to taste these?"
>
> Later- "Catty, I'm home. Brought you a present." My cat was a medium size
> short-hair tabby and we had a great relationship. Listening for the 
> silvery
> tinkle of her collar bell, knowing her movements were so smooth that sound
> may not herald her arrival. Since my blindness, Catty had taken to giving 
> me
> more physical contact than before. The cutest example is when she will 
> reach
> out with a paw to touch me, as though she knew I could not see her and it 
> is
> her way of saying, "Here I am." And I heard nothing until the warm length 
> of
> her rubbed against my legs. Setting my purchases down on the hall table I
> picked her up and stroked her soft coat.
>
> "Okay, down girl. We've got other duties. Tomorrow we have company and 
> we've
> got to get this place sparkling."
>
> First was to get the vacuum sweeper going. I had one of those robotic
> sweepers, and it did a great job; my nickname for it is Robby. It is a
> wheeled, flat disk that is 3.5 inches tall by 13 across and looks like a
> ground-hugging flying saucer. With its motorized wheels churning and its
> primitive robotic brain processing, it would independently travel around a
> room in a random pattern and though it took longer to complete the job, 
> the
> key was, it was doing it while you went off and did something else. I 
> pushed
> its start button, sending it off to do its job; closing the doors to the
> living room to box it in.
>
> Later, I ran across my package from this morning and discovered the 
> blanket
> I had bought for Catty. I walked all through the house calling for her;
> didn't hear a single TINK of her bell.
>
> IN the living room, Robby was still tracking back and forth doing his 
> thing,
> and still no Catty. I started to worry, "Had she gotten out?" Thinking,
> "Where were those" near super heightened senses when you need them?"
> Standing there, Robby came trundling up and as he went by, I felt a 
> familiar
> touch on my bare leg. "Catty!" That darn cat was riding Robby!
>
>
> President NFB Writers' Division
> Robert Leslie Newman
> Email- newmanrl at cox.net
> Division Website-
> Http://www.nfb-writers-division.org
>
> _______________________________________________
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