[stylist] Read my latest Live Well column

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Atty,

I've never had a waiter ask to cut my food, but I have had friends and
family do this without even asking me. When it's done without my
knowledge, I go with it, thanking them, but saying it's not necessary;
not in a way reprimanding, but just as a simple social thing, like, "Oh,
you didn't have to go to that trouble." If they ask, though, I again
thank them, but say I can manage cutting my own food.

I've been tempted to see how far people will go to help me do things-
like ask them to cut my food and feed me. It would make for an
interesting social experiment.

What I get a lot is people thinking I can't handle the complexities of
opening a can of soda! LOL I've had people, strangers and friends, bound
across a room just to open a can of soda! I can walk into a room all by
myself, have traveled on a bus alone to get there, mingle with people,
but opening a soda can is beyond my abilities! LOL I usually find this
more funny than anything else. I just go with the flow in these
situations.

Although, after first losing my vision, my best friend admonished a
waitress for not bringing me an open can of soda. I had to explain to my
friend that, 1, I can open it just fine, and 2, it's not necessary,
though appreciated, to chew people out for me. It's not so much my
friend didn't think I couldn't open a can, but it was more about
throwing a blind person a bone- going the extra mile out of human
kindness. My response was that the waitress should exhibit this human
kindness to all her customers then. Usually responding with
philosophical chit-chat like this shuts people up and gets them
thinking. Needless to say, I tipped our waitress well.

The same friend, during her wedding weekend, finally got the point of
the white cane, no pun intended. While coming back from supper, said
friend freaked out when Ross's cane tapped two cars in a row as we
walked across a parking lot. She kept pointing out every object, and
when Ross asked, out of sheer curiosity, why she was doing that, her
answer was, "I don't like to see my friends struggling. I want to help
them." Ross replied, "But are we struggling? My cane is hitting them,
not my body."

My friend stopped and thought about it- like you could literally see the
cogs turning in her brain! LOL She has never done this again- point out
every object our canes may hit when walking, and she now understands
that our canes are suppose to tap objects so our bodies don't.

It's interesting the things people think about blindness, but if they
just took a minute and used some common sense, they'd realize that maybe
they don't know as much about blindness as they think. Our responses and
reactions can do a lot, good and bad, depending on the attitude and tone
we take. Nonetheless, it can be frustrating at times.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog for Live Well Nebraska.com at
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/

Message: 3
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2011 14:20:12 -0500
From: "The Crowd" <the_crowd at cox.net>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] Read my latest Live Well blog
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I had a waitress ask if I needed my food cut up. I just laugh and said
no 
but if she could please take all the carbs for herself I'd be very
grateful. 
LOL

Snugs,
Atty