About Us

This blog is about how the world is viewed by the visual and the visually impaired. The intent of this blog is to bring the two worlds together. It is administered by two fabulous sisters, Toni, who is sighted and Robin, who became visually impaired in 2002 at the age of 18 due to misdiagnosis.



Thursday, July 12, 2012

Guest Blogger: Accepting My Blindness By Jeff Thompson, Blind Abilities

As I pass through so many worlds, so many lives each day, I wish my Scarlet Letter was not my defining impression. My blindness does not define me. And to those who don’t understand I begin to write… If I never accepted my blindness I would join you in a notion of pity and share a tear of sadness with you. And, yet, there would come a day when we would cry no more, no more tears, no more sadness because we would grow to an acceptance of our fate. Yours to mine and mine to yours. Let that day be today where we accept and turn our attention towards tomorrow and today. I am me and I am blind. You are you and together with acceptance we both can move on. I move on differently and today, to me, so do you. Tomorrow I’ll do as I do and you will as you do, too. My ways of my methods and my alternative techniques shine like oddities in this perfect world where we reside. Unto me I face the challenges of blending in and I am an autonomist going about my way, going about my day where some think I strayed. I belong on this broken trail of zig and zag, tappity tap tap, slaunching to the right and bumping to the left. My dance is quite chaotic to those unaware of my shoes. But to you, with acceptance, I’m right there where I intended, in this perfect world…equally with you. Do we accept people and their differences as much as we think we do? Does my presence create the “Where’s Waldo” effect as I criss cross through this perfect world? I accept all of this and that is why I am out there, being Waldo, being the glitch out of sync with perfection’s tolerances. I am OK, I accept it, and I’m not blind to me being blind. I see differently today but more clearly than ever before. And like Beautifully Blind states: I see through my heart. Thanks for the vision Robin and Thanks for the Beauty you and Toni bring to blindness.
Posted by Beautifully Blind at 7/12/2012

13 comments:

  1. Becky AndrewsJuly 12, 2012 at 7:06 PM

    Love your writing and message - Thanks for sharing.

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  2. NoahJuly 12, 2012 at 11:27 PM

    Great stuff pops.

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  3. Ur son-in-lawJuly 12, 2012 at 11:59 PM

    Nicely said and wrote. Like it alot.

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  4. Lori BrownJuly 14, 2012 at 2:31 PM

    If the world could accept blind people like the blind accept themselves it would be amazing...not blind people just doing normal things being the amazement. This post says a lot about what blind people feel. Good job. I appreciate Beautifully Blind and the many posts I've enjoyed. Love the inspiration and honesty about blindness. Good Job.

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  5. TracyJuly 14, 2012 at 7:30 PM

    Beautifully written!!

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  6. BiancaJuly 15, 2012 at 4:54 PM

    That was beautiful. It almost made me cry. You have a great way with words and I hope that you write more great work like that.

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  7. MotherJuly 15, 2012 at 5:14 PM

    You are amazing, You have excepted this so well, I think about you, and how you can do anything you make up your mind to do, even though you can not see, like building all kinds of furniture, cabinets, what ever you build it turns out perfect. I am so proud of you

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  8. Michelle PestelloJuly 23, 2012 at 9:27 AM

    This was wonderful, it could be said of many disabilities, but for sure the blind, great job!

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  9. Joy Olszanski-LewisJuly 23, 2012 at 9:28 AM

    Jeff, you have a very clear and concise way of verbalizing how you feel. You have amazed me!

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  10. Karin AndersonJuly 23, 2012 at 9:30 AM

    You are beautifully eloquent!

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  11. Fay LJuly 23, 2012 at 9:32 AM

    you have been amazing forever blindness is just a challenge that you rose to and like everything else you have done...if I can say this you rocked this partof your life and i love how you do it like the moon walk smooth as silk

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  12. Jeff Thompson on twitter @BlindAbilitiesJuly 23, 2012 at 9:47 AM

    Thank you all for your wonderful comments. I have heard from someone that they were wondering if I was complaining and I said absollutely not. Accepting my blindness is something I had to do to move forward and the public accepting my blindness is a work in progress. Every day I get an opportunity to educate someone about blindness and sometimes I can do it in 7 blocks on the bus. I do wish it could really be that easy. The true effort is just as the Beautifully Blind mission statement states... to bridge the gap between the sighted and visually impaired. Through education about blindness, grants for adaptive equipment, research, and support for blind persons and their families, we hope to help in leveling the playing field in social and professional arenas of life, as well as diminish the misconceptions of the blind and visually impaired.


    bridge the gap between the sighted and visually impaired. Through education about blindness, grants for adaptive equipment, research, and support for blind persons and their families, we hope to help in leveling the playing field in social and professional arenas of life, as well as diminish the misconceptions of the blind and visually impaired.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Autumn ChmielewskiJuly 24, 2012 at 3:12 PM

    That's wonderful Jeff! You never cease to amaze me with your insight.

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