"Close your eyes and you will see what you have never seen before"
A one-line excerpt there from a book titled "What do the blind actually do?". This refreshing look at the world around us is written by a group of blind or almost-blind people. They open up their world to us - their everyday lives, their impressions and feelings. The book alone is proof of the fact that the life of a blind person can be incredibly rich and that the blind have a great deal to offer the sighted majority. The selection of essays, poems and drawings is playful as well as serious and in many ways -an eye opener. This week's Magazine offers a short excerpt from it and an interview with Pavla Francova, the young woman who illustrated the book -although she has been totally blind since age fifteen.
This week I had the good fortune to attend the promotion of a most unusual book. It is called "What do the blind actually do?" and it is written and illustrated solely by blind people and people with severely impaired eyesight.
it works for most things. You need to focus your awareness on the right things at the right time. A friend once watched me avoid puddles along a country road without using a cane. He said it seemed like I could really see them. The secret is that I have walked through hundreds of puddles. I know their profile. I know how the ground breaks and slants around them. So when I am concentrating I can tell when there's likely to be a puddle ahead and quickly step in a different direction."
A short excerpt there from an essay written by Miroslav Michalek. He and nine of his friends bare their souls in this collection of essays, poems and -surprisingly - even drawings. Aside from fulfilling their own literary aspirations they are helping us - the sighted majority -to figure out "what the blind actually do all day". And you can bet that they don't sit around in the dark. They all seem to enjoy an incredibly rich inner world that they are happy to share with us and reveal a great sense of humor. Asked to boast of one quality which the sighted audience around him lacked one of the authors quipped " I won't panic if the lights go off".
In the book all the authors answer the same eight questions, such as has the loss of eyesight resulted in anything positive for you, what do you consider important in life and do you have a message for the sighted majority.
The authors are also asked to say something by way of introduction to their essays or poems. The book "What do the blind actually do?" is beautifully illustrated by Pavla Francova, who has several Paralympic medals to her name, teaches English-speaking foreigners Czech and loves cross country skiing, among a million other things. She also helps sighted personal assistants in their first stumbling efforts to assist the blind. I asked her first why they chose this particular title for the book:
"It was some time ago -maybe last year - when we got this interesting question : what do the blind actually do ? We realized it was really a good question and later it served as an inspiration for the title of the book."
The book is about the daily life, the feelings and impressions of blind people. Is this a message to the sighted majority?
"That's for sure. We really hoped to achieve a deeper understanding of each other. It is a fact that blind people meet a lot of sighted people but not many sighted people meet blind people. So we really wanted to provide a bridge between the two groups. "
At one point in the book, one of the authors says: close your eyes and you will see things that you have never seen before. Can you try to describe you inner world. You mentioned here that words are linked to colours for you. Can you explain that?
"Well, I just happen to have this strange ability that I do see colours behind words, or expressions or numbers. So for instance when you tell me your phone number I immediately visualize it in colour and then I memorize this colour sequence and that's how I'll remember your telephone number."
Do colours mean anything? Is one colour warm, another cold, do they have characteristics? You said you like blue in particular. You see your own name as being red and black...
"Yes, my name is red and black. But, I tend not to evaluate colours. I only see them and I watch what they do. My colours are the same as yours but I focus on certain characteristics which are usually known only to artists, to painters. Like, I'm interested in the dynamics of a colour, I want to know whether it is dense, how well it would be possible to move in the colour and things like that. The colours create a full-value world for me. For some reason - I cannot explain why -this world of colour in my mind is above the normal world of words and thoughts."
Do you think that blindness has made you more perceptive? What do you tend to focus on in new situations?
"You /sighted people/ tend to get the whole picture at the outset and then later on you focus on the details. But if you are blind the process goes the other way. First I get many details -all kinds of sounds, little tips, maybe I'll touch something and then in my mind I have to work out the whole picture. So it requires more work from me. I am challenged by the situation - which calls for creativity - and my decision, which affects my whole life, was to say "yes" to this challenge."
Speaking of creativity - you illustrated this book. How does a blind person draw?
"I have so much interest in drawing and such a desire to do so. When I became totally blind at the age of 15 it took me a couple of years to come up with a method that would allow me to do so. It is actually very simple. I use a regular pencil. You will have noticed that when you use a pencil it leaves a tactile track which you can follow with your fingers. So first I do all the lines with the pencil, then I turn the paper over to the other side where the tactile marks are easy to follow with your fingers and, feeling my way, I use crayons to colour it."
Well, it is marvelous. The drawings are very good and complement the book really well. What do you yourself like most about the book ?
"I like the wit of the book. I like the fact that although all the authors are almost or totally blind and they respond to the same eight questions it is quite obvious from their responses how different the attitude of each person can be, even if the "connecting point" is blindness. To me this is the most important message of the book because very often I experience generalizations about the blind. Actually, that is the experience of any minority - that it is perceived as a single voice. And here the diversity is obvious - some people see their blindness as an interesting challenge, others see it as a sad experience that will influence their life forever. So that is the most important message in the book: the variety."
The book is called " What do the blind actually do?" - so tell me -what do the blind actually do?
/Laughs/ "To me that is like asking "What to the sighted actually do?". There may be thousands of answers to that question."
Pavla Francova there - and the book "What do the blind actually do?" is now on the market - in Czech - for the price of 99crowns.
If you would like to be a personal assistant to a blind person in the Czech Republic or get involved in work for the blind, please contact the association OKAMZIK at : www.okamzik.ecn.cz Prague phone number: 00-420-233 379 196 or e-mail : [email protected].
