Friday, September 05, 2014

Blind man reading


"Clever," I thought.

I was on the bus going into Geneva. The man next to me, who was named Edgar, was reading his Kindle, a French novel with normal type size. He held it at a normal distance from his face and changed pages in a reasonable amount of time.

That he was reading wasn't clever. What was clever and how I knew his name was that he had an address label sticker on the Kindle.

"Nice old man," I thought.

The bus arrived at Eaux Vives.

The old man put his Kindle away and took out his stick and unfolded--not just any stick, but the stick of a blind person.

Once off the bus he proceeded to walk just like a blind person. Tap left, tap right, tap left, went the stick. His head was held a little higher much like blind people do.

I've heard of Dead Man Walking, but this was Blind Man Walking or Blind Man Reading.

(Note: Photo is not of the man. I was too gobsmacked to take his picture and it would have been an invasion into his privacy.)

No comments: