Shattering Some Misconceptions, And Kindness Goes A Long Way

This particular blog entry will be a follow-up to the blog entry that I wrote yesterday. When my friend and I went to the comedy club Monday evening we met some kind people there. My friend and I'd gotten out of the cab car then a guy came up to us and asked if we needed help. So we told him that we'd like to go to the front of the line, being that the line to get into the comedy club was so long. Before I go any further though I want to say that I was born with Cerebral Palsy (CP) in addition to being born legally blind. So given the fact that it's quite burdensome for me to stand in long lines due to my CP I told my friend that we should try to get to the front of the line. The kind people we'd met at the comedy club were a husband and wife who I'll call A and J. A and J met my friend and I right outside of the cab car. I asked them if they'd help my friend and I get to the front of the line and they did so no problem. Once we'd gotten to the front of the line my friend and I handed our tickets to the guy who was in charge of scanning people's tickets. Once our tickets had been scanned the guy said that my friend and I could go on inside the building. The man was even nice enough to let A and J go into the building with us. Once we'd all gotten inside the building someone who worked at the comedy club showed my friend and I to a table. Shortly after my friend and I'd sat down at a table J came over to our table and told us that he and his wife were a couple tables down from us but that they'd be willing to help us with whatever we needed. A few minutes later though J came over to our table and said that him and his wife A would also be joining us at our table. Once A and J joined my friend and I at our table, my friend and I conversed with the two of them like they were old friends of ours. We talked about our lives, being fans of Gabriel Iglesias and how this was my first time ever being in this state. Not too long after we'd gotten comfortable talking to our new friends it was time for the comedy show to start so we had to stay quiet. After the comedy show was over though my friend asked J if the waitress had given us our check yet. J said that he and his wife A had paid for our food. My friend and I were surprised at their gesture but grateful just the same. After J had told my friend and I that he and A had paid for our meal my friend and I had to figure out how we were going to get back to his apartment. My friend checked the prices on both the Uber app as well as the Lift app and both cab service prices were more expensive than we'd hoped they'd be. So we ended up asking A and J if they'd give us a ride to a train station that was nearby, as them driving us would cut down on our cab cost quite a bit. J and A said they wouldn't mind giving us a ride so they drove us to the nearest train station. Now I'm sure some of you who read this are thinking "Oh my gosh, these people accepted a ride from complete strangers!" However it wasn't like that at all. My friend and I'd had time to interact with A and J and our guts told us that they were good people. All of us were at the same comedy club to see the same person (Gabriel Iglesias) and we were all social people. Now if someone on the street offered my friend and I a ride neither of us would accept such an offer because doing so could end very badly. That's happened to me before though where I've been walking around cities and strangers have offered me rides. Every time strangers have offered me rides like that I've said "No." I'll continue to say "No" when complete strangers off the street offer me rides. Why, you ask? Because I'm a sensible person. The fact that I have no eyesight does not determine my sensibility, character, ETC. Because just as a sighted person would do, my friend and I both followed our guts about A and J. What I really want to talk about in this blog post though is the fact that kindness goes a long way. When J first came up to my friend and I he asked us how he could help us. To a blind person, being asked by someone how he or she could help us is the best thing to do...ALWAYS! Because when we're asked how we need help, that allows us to think about the question you just asked us and give you an honest, well-thought out answer. Whereas if people don't ask us how they can help us and they grab onto us tightly as the lady did that I wrote about in my last blog post, we are not given a chance to make a choice about what is done to our bodies or what is not done to our bodies. We are being told in no uncertain terms that we have no right to decide how we are treated by people. We are being told in no uncertain terms that even though people sometimes treat us like children, we should accept such treatment without question because at least people are interacting with us in the first place. That way of thinking is incorrect though: just because blind people can't see, that doesn't mean we should be treated like we're incapable of thinking for ourselves or that we're incapable of living lives without someone sighted being around us 24/7. If we need help from someone sighted, there are apps on our iPhones that we can use that allow sighted people to see whatever it is that we need help with through our iPhone's back-facing camera. I feel very fortunate to have grown up in this time for that exact reason: there are so many technologies that are available to people who are blind, that allow us to live much fuller lives than blind people could live even 30 years ago! That is truly amazing to me. It's one thing that's inspired me to create this public blog: the fact that the world is more open to blind people than sighted people sometimes think is the case. I want to have my shot at shattering misconceptions that sighted people have about how blind people live, who blind people are and who blind people are not and the things that will make it easier for all of us to live in unity with one another.