Also, because you are blind you find that, out of necessity, you have to improve on all the other ways we have to interpret the way people react to us. So, in a sense, you acquire capabilities that sighted people don’t have.
For example, as you note…
Given all of the different ways that someone comes into the world more or less afflicted with disabilities that become challenges, they have no choice but to come up with ways to make the world more intelligible. You feel comfortable and competent in judging the reactions of others to you. And that’s what counts. And you can always have friends who are able to see things that you miss visually, who are able to convey to you those things you do miss.
Yes, that is how I imagine it would be. How could you not be driven to come up with at least some understanding of a reality that others perceive but you do not. It would be the visual equivalent of being on the top of the hill as a deaf person and trying to imagine the sound of someone’s voice as they moved farther and farther down the hill. A loud voice becoming fainter and fainter.
Lucky might seem to be a strange word to describe it. But that is because it is a word that can only be understood by each of us given our spontaneous reaction to situations such as this. Your parents gained insights into this brand new relationship with their child who would not see the world as they did. So immediately they would be confronted with how they would have to make adjustments to this. And there would seem to be no getting around the highs and the lows. Just in coming up with the best of all possible worlds for you.
But, again, I am only groping to understand something that you are trying to convey to me from a world I am just beginning to understand. Having had no discussions like this with someone who was blind. So, sure, I’m going to miss your point from time to time until I get better at understanding it.
That’s bascially how I imagined it woud be. Someone is blind and there is no getting around that when confronted with accomplishing a goal or solving a problem. But there are ways to do it and it’s just a matter of setting up an environment that prompts you to dig as deep as you possibly can to find a way. While at the same time providing you with activities that are just plain fun as well as challenging.
Were most of the teachers themselves blind to some degree? What might a typical day be like? What classes were taught? Pretty much the same as in the public schools? Did they have programs for those going on to college and those trained more for particular vocations…learning job skills.
Whether blind or not few things are more mysterious to us then our fate “on the other side”. Especially if there are things that we lack here and now that we might not lack there and then. And I don’t pretend to have any better insights into that than anyone else. It’s just harder for me to feel drawn to a set of conclusions until there appears to be actual evidence able to demonstrate reasons why one frame of mind makes more sense than another. Lots of times here people can think themselves into believing what they want to be true.
But blind or not happy is always better than sad, and nice is always better than not nice.