==> Go for a walk and smell the oncoming spring season

colorful-just1c3:

“Who’s that guy? Never heard of him! He sounds kinda impressive, though, even I don’t walk much without my cane! I just don’t want people bumping into me assuming I can see them, hehehe! But he sounds interesting! Perhaps I will have to speak with him sometime, if he is not too boring, hehehe~ And improving is good! Nothing will ever perfect, so we must always strive to become better!”

>You remember that there had been no real pressure from your parents, no, in fact, they were hardly concerned with your need to relearn how to walk. You simply sat up in your room, with your computer in all of your self pity and depression, and you waited. Waited for something to happen, something to change, someone to save you from the black darkness that you wandered to endlessly in.

“Well… um…. You’re making my head hurt! Hehehehe, I’ve never talked to someone about stuff like this before, because no one wanted to listen! I guess you’re the first person to point out all it’s flaws! Hehehe, but you’re right, in a sense! Everyone is different, so everyone learns differently! I just want people to see how I do because there’s so much there! It’s like a sensory bouquet!

Really? I always saw justice as clear cut! But I guess everything has a grey area, does it not? But there will always be a good choice and a bad choice, correct? Even if nothing is certain, a decision must be made! Hehehe~ And Miss Lalonde, you seem to know a thing or two about laws! Perhaps your take an interest in it? That’s something I could really teach you about! Heheheh~

Well, you must understand your surroundings and all their details before you can truly navigate them, yes? And perhaps knowing how to get through something is only part of the solution! What’s the point in knowing the answer if you can’t figure out how you got there? All things matter! Every answer is just as important as the problem and the steps to the solution!”

>You inhale deeply, as if taking your own point to heart and observing your surroundings via sense of smell. You always enjoyed spring, all the smells and cook-outs and people you would meet. However, Fall was your favorite season; just cold enough for blankets, still warm enough for light coats, and warm cider and soft smells and sounds. It was truly wonderful.

“Hehehe, glad you see where I’m coming from! It’s important for people to find common grounds in order to establish a good relationship! I do think we could be good friends, hehehe, if based on nothing but similar circumstance~ Perhaps I could teach you some things, and you could teach me some things, and then we will both have gained something from this, hehehe~ If that’s what you would like!

Oh really? There’s a whole city to explore! I’ll take you around sometime, show you all the best places to smell people and hear great sounds! You’ll like it here, somewhere, I’m sure! Hehehehe~

>There’s a splitting grin on your face, as you sway your feet in the cool water of the stream. A friend, yes, a blind friend. Someone else who understands. This was a fantastic turn of events.

He’s become somewhat of an activist for the blind, and says that blind children growing up today don’t need canes anymore with the advent of this technique.  I’m not sure how much I believe that, personally, but maybe that’s because I’ve become so used to the mode of mobility with which I was instructed.  I’ll try to look up whether he’s coming to speak anywhere near here, and I’ll let you know if that’s the case.  In any case, I’m constantly aiming to improve my independence.

You remember your mother’s tears when you first walked again, awkwardly trying to travel independently, trying not to rely on the cane but realizing that you had to use it if you wanted to follow paths and hallways in a straight line.  You began doing this the first week after you became blind, when the wounds over your eyes were still fresh.  You just wanted to do what Terezi had done, hide in your room and never come out, but your mother would have none of it, stressing that you had to be able to take care of yourself, even as she watched you in tears, tracked your sightless eyes as they darted futilely in all directions.

All I’m saying is that there’s far more complexity to all manners, and even if there’s ultimately a binary conclusion to it, in between, we run into a thicket of ambiguity.  There are often times when there’s really no good choice, and the uncertainly lies between two choices of dubious moral rectitude.  Like I said, and as you recapitulated: there is always a grey area.

As far as your own views regarding the “sensory bouquet”, surely everyone has different senses that they enjoy more than others?  I just value my hearing most of those that I have left, and I find that touch is another valuable one for me.  Those are the ways in which I “see”, now, and I’m sure that you use whatever method that you find most useful and pleasurable.

I don’t know whether I would say that one must know everything around one’s surroundings in order to successfully navigate, merely enough information that one won’t struggle getting anywhere that one wants.  Even if one had one’s own sight, there’s always going to be some thing about the voyage that is a mystery.  As long as I don’t have trouble getting to where I want to go, I’m not too concerned.

You sit up further, leaning back against the tree, grabbing your cane idly and tapping against the dirt.  It appears that you’ve made a friend who understands, which is something you’ve spent your entire adolescence without.  Now, there was a girl who had had the exact same experience, almost, and had a completely different reaction to it.  She seemed truly happy, which was something that astonished you for someone who seemed so passionate about color and sight.  Maybe she’d be able to teach you how not to resent your condition so much, which, right now, was something that you really needed.

I think I’d like that, Terezi.  We could become good friends, and I think we both have some things that we could learn from each other.