I have often thought on how our senses define the
world around us, and how more importantly, they
affect and determine our view, our relation and
interaction to things and more importantly
people.
Thinking of that ,I remembered of something I did some time ago.
One day, I came out of a college I was studying, with two friends of mine. I was wearing sunglasses at the time.
As I was walking I noticed that the sky was overcast and it was actually drizzling slightly.
I thought to myself, only pompous idiots and blind people would wear sunglasses in this weather.
I assume most people, at this point would have taken the sunglasses off if they had this thought at all.
Instead I thought: So if I keep wearing them, people will think I am blind. Then I thought, How would it be if I was blind?.
I turned around to one of my friends and told him:
"I need you to hold my hand and guide me, I will keep my eyes closed and be blind until we get to the cafe we're going to"
It took some more explaining before they both understood this unexpected weirdness and accepted.
For approximately an hour, I got on a bus, got off it, walked in the center of Athens until we got to the cafe, with my eyes shut, guided by friend.
The first thing you realise whn without sight, is how small your world becomes.
Sight gives us horizons, distance and perspective. We can see thousands of meters away in greater or lesser detail.
Without sight the world constricts into a ball less than ten feet in diameter.
If you can't hear it, smell it or feel it, it doesn't exist.
All the people, the buildings, the sky, everything, disappears.
Everything becomes vague and ethereal. I could sense a woman passing by the smell of perfume, and the sound of heels.
I could sense a wall by its rough texture as I leaned into it. I could sense a bus, passing in the distance from the deep sound of its engine.
but the moment the sound stopped, and the smell passed, the thing or person, ceased to exist.
It was surreal. The world become so small, so transitory.
I could feel, crossing a street that we were in a crowd by the sound os shoes hitting the tarmac, and then, like an urban song it passed, and disappeared.
When I finally opened my eyes at the cafe, the sun was shining and we ere on the second floor with a couple of tables occupied around us.
I had no idea it would have been day. Or that there were other people there.
I still consider it one of the best things I did. I want to do it again soon.
what I wonder about the most is, if you met a person you know now, without having seen them, would you have thought differently of the person?
How would your discussions be different if you were to talk without seeing?
It is funny how much we depend on sight and judge things and people by it.
If you can, try going without it sometime.
