Blogging, Bucket List, Guest Blogs and Featured Spotlights, Happy Hump Day, Memoir and Reflections

Just Jot It January: Bullies, candy floss, and a magical Forest, #JusJoJan

Am I late? Am I late?

Just Jot It January, #JusJoJan

Forgive me, but I was just lost in thought, staring up at the clouds. Completely lost track of time.

Well, no because I can’t exactly see clouds anywhere near enough for that. I did, however, think of one of the very first episodes of The Simpsons. It’s strange that that show came up a few times in my earlier evening. I think of it often.

Well, there’s that scene where the bullies are looking up at clouds and Bart is trying to fit in with them, which is where he first gets the idea to cut off the head of the beloved town founder’s statue in the square.

Yes, you read that right…bullies were mesmerized by clouds. There was the cherry bomb, the guy with the knife sticking out of his back, a school bus going over a cliff and flames and kids screaming. Then there’s the head.

I used to see those clouds on the television screen when I’d watch that particular classic episode. I doubt I could pick that out now.

I can see enough to spot clouds in the sky, as a bright contrast to the dark sky, sometimes above and other times mixed in. I used to wonder which was the sky and which were clouds. I think I have it figured out now.

I can’t spot the colours, pinks, oranges, whatever colours, but I used to draw a sky full of clouds, back when I could still draw landscapes.

I learned what clouds are, in science class. Droplets of water. I liked to think of them as more like candy floss or cotton balls.

I’ve flown through clouds before, and where once there may have been bright sunshine coming through the airplane windows, suddenly there would be dimness. I wished I could open a window and touch the cloud as we passed through, but that was frowned on.

There’s a movie I love, “At First Sight”, where the man is blind and his earliest memory is of something cloud-like, except he could touch it and hold it in his hand. Any guesses? Or have you seen the film I am referring to?

I used to have clouds on my walls, in my room. I believe it was part of the Super Mario Bros wallpaper I had as a child. Those I could touch.

I like to look at clouds still. I like to go for car rides and focus on the sky and the clouds. I don’t mind cloudy days. They have a certain melancholy to them that I find helpful in my writing, because after all, not all of life can be sharp beams of sunlight. It’s the contrast that I like. I like a gloomy day, where the clouds are covering the world like a blanket, all those drops of water, all that eventually fall to earth, into the oceans. Where do they go, I do not know, but they make way for the sun, just on the other side.

Going back to yesterday, some people wrote about their bucket lists, or the equivalent of one. Well, I recently learned of a place, in South America, known as a cloud forest. That is now on my list. Sounds magical.

Linda discusses seeing things in clouds, with photos to accompany the exercise:

http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/06/just-jot-it-january-6th-cloud/

Read the rules for JusJoJan here.

Also,

check out the featured website for today’s prompt.

Standard
Guest Blogs and Featured Spotlights, Kerry's Causes, Memoir Monday, The Redefining Disability Awareness Challenge

I can See! I can see!

Spring has sprung!

Well, almost nearly.

Even so, I am loving the talk of blooming cherry blossoms, tulips, and just the other night it was another blood moon and short eclipse.

April is daffodil month.

April showers. Bring on the rain.

Another Memoir Monday and edition of,

The Redefining Disability Awareness Challenge

In my post, from one week ago, which I fittingly called:

Social Media,

I introduced the new Facebook page.

Please feel free to join me there, where more will be introduced in the months to come by myself, Rose, and others.

There’s just a lot going on right now, as spring arrives, and always in the world of blogging.

🙂

***

Q: If you could “cure” the disabilities that affect your life, would you?

Why or why not?

A: Do any of you remember the Barqs Rootbeer commercial with the blind man?

Perhaps not. I searched all over YouTube and found every old Barqs commercial but the one I wanted.

😦

Well, the blind man is offered a Barqs and, upon drinking, he proclaims:

“I can see! I can see!”

With this the other guy says:

“Really?”

“No. But it’s got some bite to it though.”

Funny stuff when I saw it, at the time. I quote it now and again, but it raises some interesting questions.

I like to imagine I were the one taking a drink of pop one day and suddenly I am able to see, just like the commercial promised.

😉

I used to answer the above question from this post with a defiant “NO” because I thought that meant I was accepting and proud of my situation and my life.

Does the fact that I have changed my tune on that mean I haven’t accepted anything after all?

I don’t know. All I know is that if I had the chance, suddenly to see, I would be a fool not to take it.

I am not talking about literally, as science stands now.

All the time I read about some new developments in the world of medicine, allowing the blind to see. I usually don’t jump at the chance because it isn’t as the headlines would make it seem.

Most times it’s speaking about some contraption or device, worn on the head, wired up and with a battery pack. It’s some pair of space-aged glasses that send some sort of signals and produce outlines or shapes, giving the wearer some kind of ability to sense objects in front of them.

This is how I see now. Anything more than that gets more complicated.

There is no pill to take and no surgery in the world can bring back the sight I used to have, let alone the sight I have never had before.

If, in some futuristic or magical moment, true and full vision were possible I would be first in line.

I won’t stand here anymore and say I am happy with my life and don’t need to be fixed or cured. I wouldn’t get in my own way like that.

If I could see things would…well, they would still be complicated as life often is, but they would be easier. It would make things a whole lot easier on myself and on others.

I could see colours again. I could see the expressions on my family’s faces.

I could drive. I could write. I could walk unassisted and unaided.

It would be easier to find employment and the job prospects would grow exponentially.

I am not too proud to say I could use the help.

Wanting that and wanting more for my life than I currently have does not mean I am not happy right now.

Being blind has taught me to appreciate things and to not take life for granted. I might not have that same perspective if it weren’t for blindness, not that I would be a bad person had I never experienced all that.

I am glad I did not have parents who couldn’t accept my disability and who went on a determined search for some magic cure. Some parents did or do just that.

I was taught to work with what I’ve got and to make the best of it. I’ve had a mostly happy life. I am lucky.

IF I could see though, I would. I would take that huge gift, if science or some other entity offered it. I would experience things I have only dreamed of.

I would take it and rush to stand in a bookstore or library, surrounded by my beloved books, of which I could finally pick up and read.

The world would look strange to me and I can’t quite imagine it, as I write this. What kind of world would that be? What would it look like to me?

I recommend a movie now, all about a man’s journey to almost having his sight back.

At First Sight: starring Val Kilmer and Mira Sorvino.

I saw it in the theatre in 1999, it struck a cord, and I have wondered seriously on the question ever since.

It’s about finding love and what two people do to stay together and to make it work.

She wants only the best for him and that, she thinks, includes helping him get his sight back.

Was it his blindness that got in the way of their happiness or the fact that she couldn’t accept him for him?

This is a question, in a way, for another time. It only demonstrates how complex it really is, to suddenly get one’s sight back.

I answer this question with a yes, while others may answer differently, but in the meantime I like commercials that can make a joke out of something so hard to fathom for anyone who has been blind all her life like I have.

***

Would you choose to get rid of something about yourself, anything, if you had that choice?

Why or why not?

Spread the word.

The Redefining Disability Awareness Challenge: Redefining Disability, on Facebook.

Like, like like.

Share, share, share.

And until next week:

What things are most important to you when it comes to media representation for people with disabilities or your disability in particular?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIY0AcBZm28

Standard