A person with RP
Can know you are there but have no idea who you are
Can watch a movie but miss all the full screen action, any dim scenes, and all the subtitles
Can see the sky but not the stars
Can read a book but can’t find the book
Can paint the entire house and the next night, not see the house, car, driveway, etc.
Can put up sheet rock and install fixtures but not see the tools at his feet
Can craft an intricately detailed guitar and not be able to locate it in a room
Defined by the state as a “Catastrophic Disability”
Defined by those who have it by the series of adjustments that make up life
Not sighted enough to be sighted
Sighted enough to get around in a restaurant, awkwardly hesitating, then bumping into people while finding the way to the table or the mensroom.
Not blind enough to be blind
Blind enough to need a cane to avoid stumbling, yet able to look you right in the eyes while you speak.
Sometimes it’s hard to know what’s worse. Explaining how sighted you are to the sighted world or how blind you are to the blind world.
Justifying your ability or explaining your disability.
Hard, I know, for people to understand
Hard, I know, to experience
Just Hard.
Not Impossible. . . Just Hard.