Dinosaur

Dinosaur

I've never really sat down to realize how blessed I am. I have all four limbs, no diseases, I can hear, see and there is nothing physically or mentally challenging about me. I've actually never taken this into consideration until I read "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver. The story begins with a narrator explaining how his wife has invited a blind man over to their house. The narrator is against this idea and completely uncomfortable. All of his feelings are revealed unintentionally, so he claims, when the guest arrives. The narrator also has many misconceptions about the blind man and blind men in general. After an evening of many uncomfortable situations, the wife falls asleep leaving the blind man and the narrator sitting together alone. The blind man asks the narrator to describe what a cathedral looks like and even though the narrator has no problem seeing he is unable to describe this object appropriately. Finally, the blind man offers a suggestion of allowing himself to hold the narrator's hand as the narrator draws his best depiction of a cathedral so he can get a better understanding of what a cathedral is. Even though this activity is intended for the blind man to get an idea of something he's never seen before, you witness as a reader, this event affecting the narrator and truly opening his eyes for the first time. This literary work from Carver has influenced me tremendously. I realize that I am much like the narrator in regards to his ignorance about people with disabilities. In reality, I've never really given anyone with a disability much thought. When I notice someone with a disability, of course I feel sorry for them but that is about it. However, "Cathedral" allowed me to look at things in a different perspective.

In order to get some what of an understanding of what it is like to be blind, on account of the blind character in "Cathedral", I decided to attempt to remotely understand what blind people experience. For my creative project, I asked my boyfriend to buy a miniature statue or figure of some kind that I can paint. In addition, he was supposed to not let me see it and try and find something that I am not too familiar with, similar to the way the blind man was unfamiliar with the cathedral. After he purchased this figurine, we went to the park. Beginning from my departure from the car I was blind. I kept my eyes closed and tried my best not to fall. I realize there are many inconsistencies with this experience and people who are actually blind. For instance, they get the chance to eventually adjust but I just imagined that I was in some fatality the day before and this was my first day out and about without the advantage of eyesight. Also, I am aware that this is a temporary handicap and unlike blind people, I have the ability to open my eyes at the end of this activity. Everything was different in some way without sight. I go to this park quite frequently and could somewhat recognize where the playground was, the pond filled with ducks and even the path to the particular bench I sit at. However, I realize that I have this advantage because I've seen them before but many blind people have never seen the places they are at and left with only imagining what it looks like. Once we made it to the bench, we got the unidentified object out and I asked him to give me a bad description, something that didn't really explain it to its full potential. I wanted the description to be as far off as it was in the story when the narrator is giving the blind man a bland description of a cathedral which is not really giving the blind man a good depiction of what it actually looks like. However, it wasn't until I allowed