"I See," said the Blind Man

I am impaired. Seriously, I don't know if it is safe for me to drive. I am slap happy both mentally and giddily (def giddily: adv., performing any function under the influence of the state of giddiness, spiritedly). This thought process was probably a result of being overly tired and getting mentally slap-happy. Mental slap-happiness is a little different than the "over all" slap-happiness that we enjoy. Where as the usual bout of slap-happiness makes us giddy and causes us to giggle over the most inane things, mental slap-happiness turns on our Aristotilian nature in looking at things. I think pot does both of these. You see the people who indulge in MJ laugh about anything, but also the thoughtful, philosophical side in some folks come out. I think about the scene in "Animal House" where the fellas were sitting in the dark, sharing weed with their professor. The discussion was about the Universe and whether it is large or whether a whole Universe sits on one of our finger nails. But I digress . . .


My mental slap-happiness was not pot induced but fatigue induced lest someone's clean cut image of me should burst. When I get this way, I think of things that normally I am too uptight to think about. This is no exception. One thing I have been thinking about in this impaired state is what it would be like to be blind.

Do blind people see anything? It sounds like a stupid question, but one has to look at the question a bit deeper. I always hear about someone who is blind living in darkness. Darkness is a sight, though, isn't it? You see darkness. Darkness IS something.

Sometimes when my eyes are closed I can see dim colors - even in a dark room. It seems that are brains are wired to observe SOMETHING. Darkness, dim colors, something is fed to the brain like in a dream. One really doesn't "see" his/her dreams, but they experience them in some way. The brain replicates "sight" for the dreams; the eyes do not obtain ANY of the dream's images.

What are blind people's dreams like? Do they 'see'? I bet it makes a difference if one becomes blind after a period of sight or if they are blind from birth. Does the blind manufacture the "touch" since in the dreams of the blind in lieu of sight? I would guess the recently blind "see" while the blind-from-birth people "hear" or "feel" their dreams.

I have no answers here, just conjecture. I can probably ask someone who has been blinded for some information, if I knew someone, but I will never know about the experiences of people blind from birth. There are no common references in which to communicate.

Thank God for sight!