{"id":176,"date":"2019-05-02T03:05:33","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T03:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/?p=176"},"modified":"2019-05-30T17:27:20","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T17:27:20","slug":"i-dont-have-to-be-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/?p=176","title":{"rendered":"I don\u2019t have to be good."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t have to be good.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my long-legged life I have met some extraordinary\npeople. One that always amazed me was a Japanese woman who would come into the\ncoffee shop to study. She was working on her doctoral dissertation and enjoyed\nthe atmosphere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Probably the first time I noticed her was\nwhen she went to the ladies restroom. As she opened the door, the barista\ncalled out, \u201cThe light switch is on the outside of the room.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman walked into the dark and closed\nthe door\u2014without turning on the light! I was concerned that she had not heard the\nwarning. Before I could get to the other side of the room to turn on the light,\nshe exited. It was then I noticed her dog. Her seeing-eye dog. She didn\u2019t need\nthe light because she had been blind from birth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That first day after introductions, I said,\n\u201cI bet you save a lot of money not needing to turn on the lights at your home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh no, quite the contrary. Turning on the\nlights is the first thing I do when I walk in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I gave her a puzzled look even though she couldn\u2019t\nsee it. \u201cWhy is that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, I don\u2019t need the light. But robbers\nneed the dark.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She went on to explain that she could tell\nwhen a light is on as she enters a room. \u201cIt feels different. It hums.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I closed my eyes and tried to listen for\nthe lights. But I didn\u2019t hear anything but the espresso\/cappuccino machine as\nit frothed milk for a customer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As she sat at the table, laptop open, dog\nalways at her side, we became friends. I always enjoyed talking with her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was not the only one who didn\u2019t notice\nshe was blind. One evening as the store was about to close, as young man approached\nher and said, \u201cIt is dark outside and the alley way this time of night always\nhas unsavory characters. Would it be okay if I walked you to your car?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without skipping a beat, she replied, \u201cI\ndidn\u2019t drive tonight. And I already have a ride home. Thank you though.\u201d She\nusually took the bus to her apartment. The young man kindly told her goodnight,\nyet left somewhat rejected by the woman he was hitting on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She laughed. \u201cDidn\u2019t he see my dog?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One slow evening, while I was bored at the\ncash register on the book side of the store, she approached me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHello, Oklahoma.\u201d Not her real name, I\ncouldn\u2019t pronounce her real name. That was close enough. She always knew me\nfrom my voice. Maybe my smell too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holding out her cell phone she asked me to\ntake a picture of her for social media. Someone had sent her a shirt and she\nwanted to show them she had received it. A conversation ensued about her loving\nto take photos. Someone would say, \u201cWow, what a beautiful sunset!\u201d She would\ntake a picture of it and post it online asking people to describe it. Sometimes\nshe aimed incorrectly and missed the sunset. Her friends were always honest\nwith her. She loved posting pictures of the meals she had made. She was a good\ncook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI like trying things sighted people do,\u201d\nshe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Probably the most unique thing she showed\nme was a picture of her doing archery in medieval period costume! I found it\nfunny that she chose the Age of Enlightenment. She belonged to a LARPing group\nin the area. Live Action Role Playing. The picture showed several arrows on a target.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAre those your arrows?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She nodded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow do you know where to shoot? Is there\na bell or tone sound on the target?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh no,\u201d she said, \u201cI listen to where the\nother archers hit the target with their arrows, and I aim for that sound. I don\u2019t\nhave to be good. They do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day we said goodbye was a sad day.\nFrom her strength and good humor, as well as her excellent attitude toward her \u201chandicap,\u201d\nshe always encouraged me. Some day I plan on shooting a bow and arrow. I\u2019m\ngoing to close my eyes and see how I do. Please dial 911 before I start that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t have to be good. In my long-legged life I have met some extraordinary people. One that always amazed me was a Japanese woman who would come into the coffee shop to study. She was working on her doctoral dissertation and enjoyed the atmosphere. Probably the first time I noticed her was when she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209,"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}