3 An Epic Walk in the Rain

After a few false starts in scheduling, Armen and I finally completed our blind walks together on a somewhat cold, rainy November day in Capitol Hill, Seattle. We'd had several lengthy conversations as a precursor to the event in which I laid out all of my expectations, good and bad:

1. I anticipated being overly self-conscious amongst strangers on the street (which is ridiculous, given my pride in participating in this event!).

2. I felt I was very likely to be completely preoccupied with safety - walking into things, tripping over things, bumping my head, jamming my fingers, etc. Ridiculous, yet again, because this is ideally an experiment to trust this issue (and many others) to the person that is leading the walk.

3. I expected that if this were done in a crowded area, much interest would be shown by on-lookers and passers-by.

4. I'd hoped that without the benefit of vision, this would awaken my remaining senses so that I would experience my surroundings in a heightened state of sensitivity to the world.

But first, Armen put the blindfold on and took his turn. So without much instruction beforehand, I immediately decided that I would lead in a way that would challenge his assumptions. I would not lead him arm-in-arm, but rather make him seek me out from afar with the aid of constant audible cues. To lead totally hands-free was the goal. And after a system of claps, stomps and finger-snaps were devised on the fly, I thought the system worked beautifully.

As the blindfolded participant, Armen seemed incredibly comfortable being visually impaired. He had even developed a (seemingly unconscious) tendency to shrug his shoulders and relax his muscles CONSTANTLY throughout his walk. It looked as though he were a marionette, and I found myself sharing secret chuckles with passers-by quite a lot.

One of the more immediate surprises I found in leading was Armen's complete lack of any sense of direction whatsoever. For some reason, I did not expect that walking in a straight line for just a few yards would be as difficult as he made it look. But believe me - when the blindfold was passed, I confirmed the difficulty in this challenge all over again!

But by far the most shocking part of leading was this general sense of disinterest from those around us. A few looks here and there, but for the most part, people were unwilling to break their stride to accommodate what I'm sure was a measurable level of interest in this unusual event taking place before them. In fact, not a single person had the courage to ask me what we were doing. I find this very sad.

So after leading Armen on quite a long walk, we ducked into a coffee shop to warm up a bit, and then the blindfold came out again - this time, for me.

And I have to admit, I felt incredibly awkward putting on the blindfold inside the coffee shop. In fact, I secretly herded the two of us outside before we began. But now that we were standing on the street, without quite the same proximity to others, I was ready to begin.

To my expectations, I felt pretty comfortable right away. Even in interacting with those that I could feel walk by. I felt more outgoing and less self-conscious than I did when I led Armen, as well as when I walk down the street by myself in general.

Armen seemed to invite the participation of others more than I. So much so that at one point, I felt the conversation die down, the grip on my shoulder change, and suddenly I was being led down the sidewalk by "Travis" rather than Armen. A very nice touch to the experiment, indeed!

I did turn out to be somewhat preoccupied with safety, but I trusted Armen completely. And I tried to show this at times by picking up the pace of my walk to a near-uncomfortable level, given my visual impairment. So I was happy that I could trust Armen so easily and freely in this regard, but what remained of my preoccupation with safety did seem to take away from my sensory awareness. Like I had a finite capacity for all things, and an unnecessary amount of this capacity was spent worrying that I might trip on a curb rather than smelling the flowers on a windowsill or listening to the birds in the trees.

Armen was certainly far more interested in investigating the obstacles in his path on his walk than I was on mine. I seemed to be more interested in the destination. Particularly because this was done in a familiar part of town for me, and I figured beforehand that I would not come across too many foreign objects, or be faced with too many novel, physical challenges. Not necessarily so, though!

So after being tricked by devious strangers duplicating our audible cues, being led around by passers-by, being kicked out of a mall by security personnel because blind walking is explicitly "against their policy," and being hit on in a very direct way by a member of the opposite sex named "Little T," it was time to call it a day.

I think the biggest thing I learned about myself is that I could be more inviting to others in everyday life. If I'm able to chip away at this sometimes overwhelming sense of self-consciousness I have (particularly in public, around those that I am not familiar with) and to become less sensitive about what others might think, it could very well lead to special, meaningful interactions with others. It is sad to think that when I led Armen, my perception was that those around us were not interested in what we were doing, yet when Armen led, the outside world came to life somewhat. We stopped and talked with many people when I had the blindfold on. So this is a clear commentary on me, and an issue that I hope to work on tremendously in time.

So all in all, this was a very positive experience. As it turns out, a VERY exhausting experience, but certainly a fruitful one, as well. I feel like I learned a bit about myself, and a bit about the outside world and this reality that we construct everyday, too. I believe strongly in the importance of the work that Armen is doing, and blind walking is just one of his many brainchilds. There is much to be gained from each of his projects, but the tricks are dissemination and application. To get the word out about what he is doing, and to provide the tools people need to maximize their potential from these activities. Tall tasks, indeed. But if there's one person that can do it, it just might be Armen. Because he's ambitious, yet somehow patient enough to change the world one measly person at a time. And he's certainly changed this person for the better. Heck, I was even closing my eyes on the way to the bus stop after we had finished, in tests to see how long I could maintain a straight line. Results notwithstanding, this has to be a good sign, right?

Bill Wolfe
Seattle, Washington