Blind Man, Sighted Woman
Dear [Mentat],
I’m glad you find my prose readable. These dialogues are clearly helping me advance my writing skills. I hope you find them as enjoyable as opportunities for [further] growth as I do.
On Aristotle: I’ve seen him referenced in various Sociology, philosophy, and math books over the years, but usually in an underdog sort of context. Freud for example, we consider the father of modern psychology. Yet modern-day references to his work usually disagree with his views, and reference them only to provide contrast and to show “how much more enlightened today we are than was Freud.” Aristotle impresses me the same way. But this used book was only a few bucks, and being that Aristotle was a student of Plato, I hoped that his work would in significant ways, extend and expound on Plato’s. We’ll see.
I put your question in the list. I will ask it to her [this sighted woman who is married to a blind man]. But while she did seem to do many mothering sorts of things for him, I got the impression that she strongly respected him as a lover too. She was not sacrificing her dearest dreams to be with him, and seemed to enjoy the fact that he was willing to welcome her into his circle of blind friends. In fact, I asked her if she ever felt throughout their forty years together, that she had compromised herself by “settling” for him, when she clearly could have ensnared a more able-bodied, self-sufficient mate. She answered emphatically, “Absolutely not! I love my husband,” she said. “I’ve always felt like he was the best that there was. And I never once wanted to leave him because he wasn’t good enough for me.” She said a number of times during our five-minute talk that she never felt put off by his special needs. I will try to drill down further with her in November to attempt to uncover her complete set of motivations where her husband’s concerned. Stand by.
Later,
Tom Hesley
