When Al and I lived in Hollywood, Florida in the late 80's and early 90's, I joined a short writing class. I had just begun to do a little writing off and on and thought this class might help. The leader wanted us to write something. Just make something up??? I couldn't figure out how one could do that. I could write about something I knew or experienced, but just to make something up. That would be a hard deal.
Well I began to wrack my brain to come up with something. I thought about this blind man who Al and I would pick up once in awhile to take to church. He hung around the Hollywood Beach area a lot.He played an instrument, an accordion or something. I think. Something that he would do while hanging out at the beach. So I began with that and here's what I came up with.
THE BLIND TOO SHALL SEE
"What is life all about? What does it all mean?" wondered Cheryl as she sat on the bench on the Boardwalk with her head buried in her hands. Just last week her best friend's body had been found--brutally mutilated. Angie would have been 21 in a few months and was so full of life and promise---and now this terrible,cruel and vicious thing has happened. "How can there be a God? How can there be beauty in the world when so much evil abounds?" The questions kept tumbling over and over in her mind.
Hearing a noise she looked up. Through her tears she could see the throngs of sun-lovers as they paraded past. She did not notice the blue ocean water across the sand which beckoned the hordes of people as the day's sun climbed higher in the sky. Then she remembered the sound that had caused her to raise her head. There at the end of the bench sat a stranger. He was a rather short, stout man. He appeared to be staring off across the beach. Then Cheryl noted that leaning against him was a cane- a white one. "He must be blind," she thought. "Just another 'sad thing' in this world and another reason to ask, "Why?"
Cheryl usually could strike up a conversation easily, but today she did not feel like talking--especially to a blind man. He, too, must have asked that same question, "Why?" She turned back to her own misery. The silence which continued on for a moment or two was broken as this blind man softly asked, "Is something wrong? Cheryl wondered how a blind man could know. She hadn't said anything, or made much noise. But before she could answer he continued on, "I heard your soft sighs and could sense your troubled mind. Sometimes telling a stranger can help. Would you care to tell me what is troubling you so?" he asked.
Cheryl looked at the man more closely.Tho his eyes were lifeless, she could tell from his face that there was a serenity there that she had never quite seemed to achieve, even before this thing with Angie had happened ."I suppose it might help to tell someone," she thought to herself. "Besides he can't see me. He won't know who I am." Hesitatingly she began to tell abut her friend, Angie, and the terrible thing that had happened to her. And how she seemed to have lost faith in everything. He just let her talk on and on until all the anger and frustration had been let out. At last the pent up emotions had run their course and Cheryl stopped abruptly as she realized she had poured out her heart to this stranger.
Before he could respond and to cover up her nervousness, she asked him how could he seem so concerned for a stranger when he had his own problem of living with blindness. He told her his blindness was a result of a job-related accident. That before the accident he had been so busy that he never had time to "see" the beauty around him. He was always so involved with "things" that he never had an interest in people. Now that his sight had been taken, he had discovered that the world is full of beauty and that there are many good things in the world. There are people who need to find that beauty and goodness. Because he had been plunged into a world of darkness, he had learned to see and appreciate the beauty around him, and to live each day to the fullest. He could have gone on and on about his experiences, but he seemed to know that she needed time to consider what had been said already. So he got up to leave and turning to her he said, "Do not let the harshness of the world blind you to the beauty and goodness that is also there. Live each day to the fullest. It may be the only one you have."
After the blind man had left, Cheryl stared out across the sand to the waters beyond, Her eyes began to focus on the blueness of the water, the blue sky and white clouds. The people sunning themselves on the sand and the laughter of the children playing. "Yes", she said to herself, "there is still beauty and goodness around and it is there for me, if I will only "see "it." Tho her heart was still heavy with the loss of her friend, her spirits had been lifted and she could now face the day with a new determination to "see" the beauty and the goodness that was there for her.
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