A Walk in the Park

I saw the Ray Charles biopic "Ray" the other day, and in the movie there's a moment where he teaches his future wife to hear a hummingbird through the window of a crowded room. It gives you a certain confidence as a sighted person to witness the feats of the unsighted. We have so much more POTENTIAL -- and most of it goes unused.

Today I took a walk in the park and tried to I.D. all the tree species -- a major challenge in wintertime when there are no leaves to compare, only bark, roots, and branch structure. It takes a little time, but those with patience really DO learn the subtle indicators that distinguish a barren Norway maple from a barren mountain ash.

Could a blind man identify trees? Sure. By feeling the bark, feeling the shape of the leaves, maybe by associating certain chirps with certain trees, or by licking the sap? Recognition is imitation, and imitation is imagination, and who has more imagination than the disabled? How strange to call imagination a disability.

Of all the biographical genres, the biopic is the closest to fiction, so it's not really appropriate to criticize them in terms of "accuracy" as one would a biography of Helen Keller. Nonetheless I thought I would try to find something about blind people's reaction to the film. Then I realized blind people probably didn't see the movie. (Do blind people ever go to the movies? I'm ashamed to say I don't know.)