Physical, excursion

RantWoman is this physical safety excursion to Planet RantWoman REALLY the best way you can find to observe the solstice? I mean we really have not asked you to elaborate on “If I tell you it is unsafe, you need to BELIEVE me”

 

Yep. RantWoman knows how to party. One is not required to like the invitation to party alongside…but if one pays attention to what works and what does not….

 

Wired

Great moments in matters of physical safety, the RantWoman edition with a nod to the friend who told RantWoman, thinking of memory only a a scale of months,  maybe it is not good to have such a long memory, well except for the part about what gets wired in and how or the part about what works and what does not.

 

Speaking of wired, RantWoman has to assume, based on lots of observation of the rant parents, that probably there are some physical reactions wired from events long ago, and not just from 2-year-old RantWoman fights with RantMom about taking glasses off at bedtime. Plus being grabbed is one of the most common blind person nightmares.

 

Crossing the Street

RantWoman to Friend A years ago, probably not exactly articulating the Grab the Blind Person and Bless them “it’s about crossing the street” point, “I am having trouble with (Conflict is a Gift of God Friend)”

 

Friend A “Why do you even hang out with…”

 

RantWoman to herself: gees. I was hoping for something like “say more” or “what would help?”

 

Any thoughts about what is or is not working in that conversation?

 

 

Friend A lately has been telling RantWoman she is learning all about ableism. Really? Have you considered inviting RantWoman into your discussions because guess what, it’s on the agenda…?

 

Any thoughts about what is or is not working in that conversation?

 

 

Friend B from “It’s about crossing the street” “RantWoman this email is just TOO LONG.”

 

Any thoughts about what is or is not working in that conversation, other than a hope that sometimes roles and titles come with expectations of more fortitude?

 

 

Life moved along. RantWoman stopped going walking with Conflict is a Gift of God Friend. RantWoman did not yet find the right words to talk regularly of Grab the Blind Person and Bless them except at blindness conventions where the line evoked gales of knowing laughter. . RantWoman learned that wheelchair users also have similar problems. Welcome to everyday ableism.

 

Toddlers

Life moved along. Some wonderful exuberant toddlers arrived. So did toddler browning motion, behavior which absolutely fries RantWoman’s nerves on safety grounds for herself and on behalf of tottery elders. At first, RantWoman’s Excessively Plain English to Quakerese filter repeatedly malfunctioned in the “nothing makes it out of RantWoman’s mouth direction.  Possibly just as well, especially since RantWoman keeps telling people, hard as it may be to believe, RantWoman sometimes gets so upset she cannot talk.

 

RantWoman accidentally found a conversation with someone else who handles the toddler Browning motion problem a different way. RantWoman wrote email which RantWoman recalls seeming to fall off the edge of the universe with no or inadequate response. HOWEVER, RantWoman observed toddlers growing with grandmother attention.

 

RantWoman also learned to come up with the right words for visitors with small ones who understand nothing about a white cane.

 

Ding. Ding. Ding. What WORKS here? Any elements that really do not work?

 

 

RantWoman spends LOTS of time and energy trying not to plow into people, trying to move among bobbing forms. Some of the forms are actual humans. Some of the forms are the various streams of fog, blur, multiple imagery, grow your own lava lamp floaters which arise when RantWoman’s eyes interact with bifocals and the environment. Trust RantWoman on this: mind-alterning substances are basically superfluous.

 

RantWoman spends still MORE time and energy trying not to plow into people, trying to move among bobbing forms. RantWoman has actually been doing this her whole life and, even after midlife eye calamities, can often recognize people by a combination of shape and rhythms of movement. NO ONE should take this for granted though.

 

Minders

Comes now RantWoman’s fraught moment in Business Meeting of utterly distressing concern for wheelchair accessibility for a tenant’s services. Afterward, besides preventing RantWoman from attending worship for a time one of the things tried was…drum roll please…Minders! Minders who, having never before sat next to RantWoman in worship suddenly felt entitled to try to sit next to RantWoman in worship, overpowering scents and all. RantWoman hopes this intrusion made SOMEONE feel better but RantWoman repeatedly moved away from these intrusions. RantWoman made such intrusion more difficult in other ways. RantWoman greatly appreciates others’ recognition that Minders Were Not Working!

 

Digression for the RantWoman in meetings experience. RantWoman specifically gave people permission to tap her on the arm if she was missing a visual cue. None of the people RantWoman gave this permission to remembered being given this permission. RantWoman also consulted with another blind friend about experience in meetings. That friend said just sit next to someone you feel safe sitting next to. RantWoman at one point analyzed a bunch of data and realized her sit next to strategy had a kink in it, a kink RantWoman does not feel like spelling out in blogdom.

 

RantWoman has also specifically sometimes asked someone to sit next to her in Business Meeting. But rantWoman has NEVER given anyone blanket permission to touch her without asking. It happened ONCE  RantWoman moved away quickly, which did not help because RantWoman moved in a direction she would have preferred not to move without seeing who was there. Touch Friend followed RantWoman but did IMMEDIATELY move away when RantWoman asked. And for RantWoman’s trouble, she got told, not asked by another Friend what a loving gesture the touch had seemed.  Did RantWoman need still MORE reasons for her head to explode? Does anyone besides RantWoman see the CONSENT issue here?

 

The Bus

The next part of today’s excursion to Planet RantWoman is about the bus. RantWoman rides the bus almost everywhere. RantWoman rides when the bus is nearly empty and RantWoman can easily find a seat facing forward near enough to the front still to hear the stop announcements. RantWoman also rides the bus when it is crammed full. If there are seats, RantWoman tucks as much of what she carries under her feet in order not to conk people on the head or trip other passengers.

 

RantWoman’s feet work better than her eyes, RantWoman sometimes stands and as a result sometimes winds up unintentionally conking other people with her baggage. Other passengers are not so courtesy-minded and a crowded bus also often means high risk of getting conked in the face by someone else’s baggage.

 

 

The day of the great Not Look very Far …an Idiot moment in Business Meeting, RantWoman realized she was surrounded, surrounded too close by people who never ride the bus and probably do not have their know when to move instincts as well wired as RantWoman does. RantWoman was not confident she could pick up her bag without conking anyone with it. At this point, RantWoman’s direct action “do what you can to stay calm and not move” reflexes also kicked in. But still more Planet RantWoman is on the itinerary.

 

 

RantWoman! You know that thought that muddled into your head about three men more concerned about a man’s feelings than a woman’s physical safety? You know articulating that will probably not be helpful? Nor will it be helpful to elaborate on how circumspect RantWoman was in an earlier very serious moment involving the word “insurance” in Business Meeting.

 

Yeah. God is going to have to help deal with that and if God can make sure the insurance exclamation makes it into the minutes…. It’s part of the many things matter very much and some things are way too fragile problem. Maybe the thought will just lurk amid RantWoman’s visual fog. Please hold all in the Light.

 

Sighted Guide

Please enjoy a special Blindness Tourism excursion about sighted guide techniques. Sighted Guide techniques are more or less standard practices for assisting blind people to get around. Sometimes a blind person will take a guide’s elbow. Sometimes a blind person will follow with a hand on the guide’s shoulder. Both of these can be awkward if the guide and the person being guided are substantially different in size. Ding! Ding!

 

(Sometimes blind people also line up with each person putting their hand on the shoulder of the person and front of them and relying on the front person’s cane skills.)

 

But the ONLY sighted guide technique RantWoman can deal with is following a guide by voice, admittedly difficult in noisy environments. Often at blindness conventions RantWoman spends the first day or so nearly jumping out of her skin around the “helpful” sighted volunteers. This year’s volunteers were more perceptive and less intrusive than average.

Most recently at this year’s convention, RantWoman was actually sighted guide, for a woman in a wheelchair; the wheelchair controls were even working decently, and follow was the order of the day but sense of space was critical.

 

But back to the Business Meeting excursion. RantWoman was surrounded, but not surrounded by people who to RantWoman’s knowledge have ever had any training about sighted guide issues. RantWoman was just clear it was safer for everyone for RantWoman not to move. As it was, RantWoman’s brain about melted reading one Friend’s earnest email. If RantWoman tells you it is unsafe, a member of a CARE and Accountability committee needs to believe her and maybe even try to help sort out the what works and what does not.

 

 

RantWoman WHY do you need to go on at such length? What is your intent?

 

Hold ALL in the Light.  Start there.

 

 

In faithfulness.

 

RantWoman