Blind Reflections | Jonathan Dator

Adventures In Being Legally Blind | A Blind Reflection By Jonathan Dator

This winter I was up in Boston at the Copley Place Mall shopping for a leather jacket. When I found one I really liked the employee working at the store said, “But….that’s really expensive.” I felt like I was living out the scene from the movie Selena when she was at the Mall looking for a dress to wear to the Grammy Awards and the sales person said something similar to her.

I had this “how dare you, you don’t know what I can and cannot afford” moment in my head and simply said, “I’m willing to spend.I haven’t purchased a new jacket in years. How much could this possibly cost, anyway?” Well, it turned out I was at Barney’s and not Banana Republic (oops) and the jacket was $2,100. I ran out of there as fast as I could while saying, “That’s two mortgage payments!”.

Anyway, fast forward to today. I just bought Armani cologne and the woman at the cash register said, “This is the $100 one.” When I said I realized that but wanted it anyway because it was twice the size of the $80 bottle she said, “Well, it’s your lucky day because it comes with a free bag and some free samples. It must be really hard for you to spend money like this with your condition. Just for you I’m going to throw in extra free samples!”.

After taking a sip of my coffee, I thought to myself, “You know what, Jon? You’re tired today.” So, I said, “Sure, go for it. Throw in another $100 bottle of cologne if you feel like it!”…..I didn’t have the “how dare you” response that I had while shopping for a leather jacket a few months ago. Not because there is anything wrong with the “how dare you” response, but because I just didn’t have the energy for it.

Today was a “hand me the free shit” kind of day, and sometimes there is absolutely nothing wrong with that response either. ~ Facebook | May 6, 2018

Jonathan Dator has been legally blind from LHON for 15 years. He is a Psychologist and Associate Director of Training at Providence College in Rhode Island. Here is a link to another Blind Reflection by Jonathan