Monday, January 12, 2015

Pretty Double Edged Swords



                It’s a new year and I find myself feeling very reflective.  I’ve been here for almost 38 years, and in my life the world has changed so vastly.  When future robot Historians write about this time they will refer to it as the Technological Age. They will smugly detail their rise up above the carbon based bipeds who were too busy watching stupid videos on Youtube to notice that they were slowly being sucked into a Martix of sorts.  Ehh…whatcha gonna do about it?

                The most notable differences, for me, is that the world has somehow become both bigger and smaller at the same time.  All of this constant media connects us all, and yet somehow separates us.  It’s not unusual to go out and see groups of people sitting together, looking beautiful in the glow of their electronic devices but not speaking a word to each other.  The world flashes, and pulses with sound and pictures but day by day we are losing our humanity.

                Children grow up so fast these, but so many of them don’t go outside and play with each other anymore.  They chat online, and play video games but they don’t know how to play freeze tag.  They watch things on the television that would have shocked me in my youth (hell, some of it shocks me now) without batting an eye but are terrified of going out in the world alone, because we have to teach them that the world is a dangerous place. Because it is.

They've watched planes crash into buildings full of innocent people, they've seen bombs rain down on other innocent people and in the back of their minds they wonder if today is the day that one of their classmates will walk into school with a gun and start shooting.  The things they see on the news can never be unseen.  In my darkest moments, I can find a little perverse peace in all the horrible things that my boy will never have a visual image of burned onto his retinas.

                The world is also very stimulating now.  Just a hundred and fifty years ago people rode horses, sent telegrams to each other and marveled at the awesomeness novelty of electricity.  Sometimes I think it would have been easier for Gabriel to have been born in those days.  People talked to each other as their primary form of entertainment.  The read out loud, they made things with their own two hands and went to potluck dinner dances  That scenario is moot, however for it is very unlikely that Gabriel or I would have survived his traumatic birth 150 years ago and had the chance to spin yarns by the fireplace. 

                Here in the 21st century, there are so many parts of the world you need eyes to experience.  Movies and television shows have become a staple in most peoples lives.  They talk about them around the water cooler at jobs they've driven their cars to, while showing each other video clips and gifs.  

                My primary concern for my son’s future is twofold:  Will he be able to reach a level of independence that most of us take for granted?  And will he be forever left out because of all the things he can’t see? 

                I could drive myself crazy thinking about him, as a young adult in his first apartment, stumbling and spilling some juice on the floor.  Will he be able to clean it all up?  Will he miss some and be invaded by ants?  Will he realistically be capable of living alone and drinking juice?

He doesn’t get invited to many birthday parties or play dates even though he has a lot of friends at school.  I know why - parents don’t want the responsibility of having a kid who can’t see cruising around their houses.  Perhaps if I was in their shoes, I would feel the same.  Will this be a pattern in his life?  Will his friends exclude him for fun times when he’s older because he’ll always need a little extra help? 


                I have no answers to these questions, therefore I don’t often allow them to haunt me.  I focus on the here and now, and hold on to a hope.  That one day technology will bring him a benign seeing-eye robot who will help clean up the juice he spills on the floor and make it easy for him to go out and hang with his friends.  I pray that the same technology that is rapidly changing the very fabric of society will enrich his life by letting him live it the way he wants to, not just the way he can.

                

1 comment:

  1. Hi Stacy,
    Yes, your son will be able to live on his own. I am a totally blind woman, and I live independently in my own apartment. I make braille labels for my spices, cans, oven, cleaning/personal products, anything really that needs to be identified. I go grocery shopping with a customer service person or order them online. Cooking is not my thing, not because I am blind, but because I just do not enjoy that activity. However, I make meals for myself, and I have made meals by myself to feed 8 people or 40 people. There are nonvisual techniques for telling if meat is done, chopping things with knives, baking, ETC. The same goes for cleaning; spills are easy because there is a total difference between sticky/wet/disgusting and clean. I cross streets independently with my cane or guide dog by listening to the traffic. I thankfully live in a city with great public transportation, so I can take the bus or lightrail to work, grad school, to see friends, or do whatever else I want to do.
    Friends won't always exclude. I've been shopping, to the movies, hiking, horseback riding, and on trips across the state or across the country with them. There are movies with audio description; if you have DVDS, you can look in the language menu and there is sometimes an option that says English/visually impaired. Blind people work in various careers. I know people who are chemists, teachers, administrators, chefs, business owners, architects, stay-at-home parents, ETC. There is an organization The National Federation of the Blind www.nfb.org and an organization for parents of blind children https://nfb.org/parents-and-teachers
    There is so much more to say, but this comment is already getting long. If you would like to talk more, I am glad to help in any way I can. My email is mharris@blindinc.org, or if you would rather talk on the phone, I could send you that info.

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