To Be Without - May 11 Blog

My experience at Dans le Noir was more interesting than I could've ever imagined. I was telling Kyle it reminded me a lot of this "aha" moment I had while watching the movie Babel. In the movie there is a character who is deaf. She struggles with her disability, especially being a teenage girl raised solely by her father. There was this scene where the deaf girl and her friend go to a club. With the strobe lights flashing, and a large crowd of young people dancing and singing, everything was silent. The absence of the sound along with this strong visual information helped me more than reading about Helen Keller in school could ever help me understand what it means to be without a sense. I never thought about not being able to hear music and trying to dance, just the same as how I never thought how blind people pour their drinks without spilling. Free will was something I think we all missed out on with this dinner, but I liked that aspect of this experience, too. I wish people would take things away from me more.