Since my Media Aesthetics students have been reading and blogging about vision and blindness, I though I'd share this journal I found last year...
"[E]excuse me, I just got my sight back last week after being totally blind for 43 years. Could you help me figure out what I am seeing?" -- Mike May
[A fascinating excerpt:
I found it very distracting to look at people’s faces when I was having a conversation. I can see their lips moving, eye lashes flickering, head nodding and hands gesturing. First, I tried looking down and if it was a woman, a low cut top would be even more distracting. It was easiest to close my eyes or tune out the visual input. This was necessary often in order to pay attention to what they were saying. I am sure there will come a time when all this visual communication will mean more to me but for now it is just distracting.May's description of the visual component of music (via a marching band), his musings on a game of catch, and his new reaction to the previously meaningless pleasantry "Nice to see you" are all quite interesting.
Another fascinating passage:
When I noticed dark patches behind me, it didn’t register right away that these were my footprints. I never thought of footprints as images other than when reading about them in an old west novel. To me, they were the thump; pivot push and the texture of the sand on my foot not dark splotches following me around like a shadow.
wow. That is truly amazing. I suppose that there are millions of things that we "sighted" people take for granted.
I once rode rollercoasters at Hershey Park with a blind man. My friends and I were astonished at the things he would tell us he loved about the ride. Even though he couldn't see where it was going or the world rush past him, it was beautiful to talk to him after the ride and learn what it was that he "saw" during the ride.