Walking stick, GPS on his phone, and the Zen of life.

November 17th, 2007

From Nov 17, 2007

A blind man rode the bus home with me yesterday. And by, “with me” I mean he was on the same bus as I, and I watched him. I tried not to stare, not for his benefit as much as for the benefit of the other people around me.

Depending on how long he’s been without vision, his other sensory perceptions are significantly enhanced. He looked like a professional blind man, so I presume that he did in fact have the heightened sense of smell and hearing. He could identify the people who stood in front of him or who walked past him. He could judge how big they were by the sound of their footsteps as they walked by, whether they were a man or a woman (men and women inherently smell different), what their age was, how long it had been since they showered, whether they had had sex that day… and probably an entire list long of identifying characteristics that many people would never care to use as reference to know who and what is around them.

I’d like to experience this man’s sense of smell– though probably not on the Colfax bus. I’d like to know what a sonata sounds like through his ears. I’d like to understand what it feels like to touch an animal, the silky soft fur of a cat or the piercing spikes of a hedgehog. I’d like to know if the sensation of touch is heightened, too– what it would be like to be without vision and go through an orgasm particularly strikes my curiosity.

There are so many textures out there. So many variations of taste and sound and scent. I can only imagine that a person with limited perception of any one sense would completely make up for their lack by increasing their interpretation for the sensations they DO have.

I have always been a tactile person. I appreciate the roughness and smoothness of texture. I appreciate the varying levels of pressure I experience when touched.

A beautiful array of colors have been formed in my brain, a palette of magnificent beauty laid out before us– that are not really colors at all, but our interpretation of the light that is reflected off of an object and cognitively perceived within our extraordinary brain.

The depth of sound that can be of high pitch or low– of high intensity or that is enormously quiet. Any grouping of similar sounds can be a finely-tuned orchestra or a nuisance to someone who doesn’t want to hear it.

I appreciate the varieties of edible things we can put in our mouths. Or, the inedible, too. I want to taste everything, both pleasing and nauseating, just so I can know what it tastes like.

Our bodies were created in absolute perfection. Of course, many people with imperfections may beg to differ. However, in trauma, our bodies heal without instruction. Our lungs take in air without perception. Our hearts beat without direction– and our rhythms change only by thinking about them. We are a magnificent creature– and yet we still have no idea how exactly we work… or why we have cognitive thought– never mind the human created perspective that we might actually have souls that can and will leave our bodies at any given moment…

I am in awe with the experience of this life. I am hoping to express to you the vast beauty in our design– regardless of who or how designed them. We have come so far in the last several thousand years. We have evolved into different creatures altogether. The human of today has the potential for far greater calculations, far greater understanding of technologies, and a far greater span of creation than any human ever created before us, and we are continuing to expand ourselves in every way as we further ourselves along our continuum we call time.

We have created non-organic things to consume our time and thoughts. We are divided into several cultures that place value on a wide variety of interests. We retain the carnal desire to populate and to conquer each other, even though we at the same time have realized the importance of understanding ourselves as individuals, as families, as cultures and as societies. We are focused in so many different directions that it doesn’t surprise me that there have been chemical abhorrations that have caused some people to need more stimulation, some to crave less, and some to outright shut out all stimulation from their experience. We are diverse, and at the same time we are the same creature, and it amazes me.

There is much to be learned from this lifetime. All of my past lifetimes will never cumulatively hold as much knowledge as this one will for me. Not that I necessarily prescribe to the concept of reincarnation, but in some way, I don’t doubt the ebb and flow of awareness I can siphon from that comes from ideas not my own– ideas of those from the past, present and future.

People watching is an exciting experience for me. It opens so many doors– so many thoughts in my head that I want to emulate… many that I would hope to never personally repeat into my own experience, but most that help me understand how we all are collectively.