Look Before You Leap

Over the years I’ve done my share of - ‘what’s it like’ research, hoping to better understand what persons not like me Have to cope with every day...persons plagued with issues like - never hearing music - or - not being able to see. My earliest confrontation came in 1991 when I was eating breakfast in a tiny town’s cafe. An older fella, one stool down - no one that I knew - was quietly sipping coffee when I heard the waitress say, “I think Sharon’s sweet on you ‘cause - take me on my word...compared to what the others get - your crêpes are twice the size! I glanced to check her comment out - about the bigger crêpes - and as she sat the monsters down, I couldn’t believe my eyes. But why, I’d wonder, had she had to tell him they were bigger? All he’d need to do was look around to find that out, When, only seconds later, I would come to understand what the pile of giant crêpes was actually all about. A major sodium-chloride fan I quickly scanned the counter, finding the nearest pair of shakers parked in front of him. Afraid of seeming rude I thought - ask the guy for help, and - going by his work shirt - it appeared his name was Jim. “Hey there, Jim,” I made my move, “if you wouldn’t mind...when you get a second could you slide the salt my way?” He smiled and gently groped the basket, mining for the shakers...found the ones he knew to be the only two in play, Then slid them - as a pair - to where he felt that I could reach them! That was when the reasoning for his tactic, I would find, Wasn’t because he’d heard me wrong...but rather - as it were...he had no way of knowing which was which...the guy was blind! “One of those - I think, is salt,” he said...the other’s pepper. When shakers aren’t embossed, ya’ see, it’s hard for me to tell. When I decide to season something, I just - quiz my nose...I figure out what’s in the bottles based on how they smell!” It made me feel uneasy to have sat there all that time without the slightest inkling that the guy a stool away Was wrestling with an issue that I’d never really though about...struggling with his lack of vision each and every day. Two years later me an’ the wife were down in Acapulco, greased up good on a crowded beach, when some young kid nearby Playin’ some awesome rock-n-roll, coaxed me into asking someone sitting near us if --- “It’s Judy’s Turn to Cry” Wasn’t one of the greatest songs the 60’s ever gave us. The girl just smiled and glanced away...a girl about our age... So me and Stephanie figured she was prob’ly from some country where those we saw as superstars - to them - were not the rage! The next great tune was “Teddy-Bear” - a big-time Elvis hit - when - just before I quizzed the girl, I turned and said to Steph, “If she don’t care for Teddy Bear the only explanations are...she’s either wearin’ earplugs…or the ditsy broad is deaf! While gearing up to ask her what she thought of - Mr. Presley, who’s been, for years, a favorite of both Stephanie’s and mine - Two young kids approached the lady, garnered her attention - then simultaneously started to communicate - in ‘sign’! The youngsters’ conversations would expose the woman’s plan...in which - by her insistent look - we knew they’d made it clear That...“Pack it up...it’s time to leave,” was not, by any stretch, an option either kid, to say the least, was keen to hear. And as the trio left the beach we watched the flailing fingers, knowing, without knowing ‘sign’, the gist of what was said. We had to laugh when...as the angry youngsters reached their car...we saw them flip each other a sign that’s very easily read. The last but not the least offense I’m guilty of, my friend...sadly far too often, but will likely do again... Is letting sick, corrosive instincts govern my behavior when triggered by the color of another person’s skin! Being made to say or do hateful, racist things, simply due to what we hear from those who think it best That each and every ethnic group resist the urge to meld - demands no speculation as to why we’re so depressed. So my advice to you, my friend, is - ‘look before you leap’. Assess the situations you confront from day to day, And leave yourself a means for ‘backing up’ ‘cause...now and then...we pay unsavory prices for the things we do and say. My books and Audio-CDs are available at: writerofbooks.com