Falling from a chair to a new perspective on life with Grant Matthews

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Welcome or welcome back, everybody to another exciting episode of
Aaron's Opinion. The podcast for blind people where we speak
about critical issues in the blindness community and all other
issues from across the universe and galaxy. We're going overseas
over to South Africa today. Absolutely, this is going to
be a lot of fun. One two four zero six
eight one nine eighty six nine one two four zero
six eight one nine eight sixty nine Aaron's Opinion six

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We'll look on YouTube and see when it premieres. When
it premieres is the exact same time that you'll be
able to listen to the episode. All right, today's guest,
we first want to take it take this time to
thank Lois Strahan. From a different way of seeing, Lois
has been on the show. I think she's been on
the show twice I know I've been on her show
and she's been on ours. And Lois is an incredible friend,

(05:25):
an incredible just an incredible podcast. A Different Way of
Seeing with Lois Strahan is the podcast to listen to
for sure. Anyway, Once upon a time, a few weeks back,
I get contacted on well actually on the public WhatsApp community,
which is why you should join it. If somebody by
the name of Grant M came into the community and
I ask the dam, I said, Grant, welcome here from

(05:46):
South Africa. How did you find out about the show?
And he says, well, somebody named Lois Strahan told me
about the show and she said that I would be
a great guest, and he's right. So today, Grant, we'll
talk to you about his life and basically his life
from living a relatively you know, a kind of a

(06:08):
relatively stereotypical life or a relatively typical life in South Africa.
I believe he worked in the retail industry until one
day he was doing some I believe, if I'm just
going back on my memory, Grant was actually doing some
work in his home. I think he wanted to repair
a shower curtain or repair a curtain and to do that,

(06:30):
he stood on a chair and then something happened and
he'll tell you the rest of the story. So of
course we need a good, a very good title for
this episode. And of course Grant does a wonderful job
of speaking to you today about his perspective on life
and how he lives a healthy, happy life there in
South Africa. So of course don't forget you're listening to

(06:53):
the Aaron's Opinion podcast. My name is Aaron Richmond, and
of course we need a great title for this one,
which of course will be falling from a chair to
a new perspective on life with Grant Matthews. Welcome or
welcome back everybody to another exciting episode of Aaron's Opinion.
The podcasts are Blind People, where we speak about critical

(07:14):
issues in the blackness community and all of their issues
from across the universe and galaxy. Today we're joined by
another great friend from South Africa, courtesy there of Lewis
Strahan from a different way of seeing. Thank you so much,
by the way Grant em Grant Matthews joins us, Well,
he's got quite a story. You've had quite a life
so far, and a lot of life ahead of you,

(07:34):
but you've learned a lot of lessons along the way
and throughout your journey of life. So of course I
will ask you the question I ask everybody here on
the show. Who is Grant Matthews. You can tell your
whole life story and tell tell us, tell me everything
you want me to know, and don't tell me anything
you don't want me to repeat. So there you go.

(07:55):
I'll meet with the microphone and sit back and listen
to your beautiful story. So go right ahead. Absolutely, Hi, everybody.
My name is Grant Matthews. I'm a South African born
in the early nineteen seventies. I lit an active lifestyle
up until twenty eighteen. And what I mean by active
lifestyle I did things like whitewater rafting. I used to

(08:15):
love camping.

Speaker 4 (08:16):
I love their great outdoors on the bush, that skydiving,
things like that. And in twenty eighteen my whole life changed.
It was almost as if life itself decided to get
me off the hamster wheel and push the reset button
and start again. However, something that I've got to put
in as almost as if a veil was lifted at

(08:37):
the same time, because now I do not really Early
on iesight, well, I do not really on yesights at
all anymore, which stands out to me specifically with people,
it's the inner being who they really and truly are.
And yeah, it's been quite a curve. After I became blind,

(08:58):
I realized, well, hey, I can sit in a corner
and cry, but it's not going to change anything. It's
not going to improve anything that is up to me.
There've been millions of blind people before me, and there'll
be millions after me. So I set myself down, get
myself a good speaking to and decided, yeah, take up that.
It's a new challenge, go for it. It got nothing

(09:20):
to lose, everything to gain. And so I decided to
test my own boundaries within reason, of course, and what
I mean by reason the certain things which are against
my values, which I won't really go for. But I
did things like I joined toast mass Is predominantly because
I wanted to learn how to articulate latent speeches and

(09:42):
I had never been comfortable speaking in public. So there
was a new challenge and I was I'm gladed that
that I learned how to use a computer again as
a blind person. I started studying logo therapy online after
I'd learned how to use a computer and logo therapy
is literally a meaning centered form of psychotherapy, which I'm
almost finished with. But I've learned an incredible launch, and

(10:05):
I've met lots of people, a lot of very interesting
people and love. Yeah, new boundaries come, and yeah, I've
done things like scubaiving, which has been brilliant. But apart
from that, that's me.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Really excellent. Absolutely. You know, perhaps I might have missed
something that you said. You said that you started out,
you know, your life as a very active person, and
around the year twenty eighteen you became blind. So I
think I might have missed it maybe, or perhaps you
didn't fully say. But you know, in my case, I
was born blind with glaucoma and a congenital heart defect.

(10:45):
So Grant, can you tell us more about exactly how
you became blind actually and what the onset of that was,
Like you smoothly glided through it. But I really like
to get under people scanning at the real details.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
Yeah, I became bland. I am blind because of optical
nerve damage. Many people have Centually that must have been
incredibly difficult personally. I believe unfortunate that I had the
opportunity to see and do things that a lot of
people never will. So, yeah, there are things I'll always miss,

(11:20):
but I'm glad I did see and do the things
that I did, because now I wouldn't be able to.
So damaged my optical nerves and yeah, there's no repairing
of optical nerves, not at this point, and I'm not
in medical science. I did not want to believe it,
so I literally went three different ophthalmologists and they all
told me the same thing. I still didn't want to

(11:42):
believe it, so eventually I want to go and consult
a professor in opthalmology. And after they told me, well, sorry,
there's nothing we can do, I had to accept it.
And that's when my life started changing.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yeah, sure, absolutely so. And if you don't mind me asking, so,
how did you damage your optic nerve? What happened?

Speaker 4 (12:06):
That is my own fault. I was working and the
one day I want you to change the one of
my off days, I wanted to change the curtains in
the bathroom. And it's like a stretchy kind of wire
thing that you put through a net curtaining sure, and
I hooked the one end in and I just could

(12:27):
not reach the other end, and instead of going to
fetch a ladder, like any most sensible people would do,
I took a plastic garden chair and stood on that
to reach up and hook the other end in. But
while I was doing that, the one leg broke off
and I fell fell back. With that, the one leg
of the chair broke off and I fell backwards and
struck the back of my head against the corner of

(12:49):
the wall. At first, nothing was wrong. Through the broken
chiut and got another one, completed doing what I was doing,
my dinner, had a shower, got into bed, and it
was only the next morning when I woke up that
I knew something is wrong. At first, I didn't know.
I thought that, well, maybe there's a partydes in the area,

(13:09):
or the lamp next on my bedside lamp is blown.
And it was only when I walked outside and I
realized something is wrong and would introduce me to realize
that it was the moon does not warm your skin.
The sunders My skin was getting warm and I still
couldn't see, and I thought, ah, what now.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
That's really weird. That's really fascinating, man. So basically, this
small accident, you hitting your head. You must have hit
your head really really really hard. I mean, that's that's terrible.
But you know these things happened, Yeah, okay, all right,
So these things happen as we walked through our journey,
you know, absolutely, So then what so then you realize

(13:50):
that you couldn't see you noticed that something didn't look right,
and then what did you do?

Speaker 4 (13:55):
I was wrenching in the back of somebody's properties. So
I made my way round to the Manha fell over
many pet plants and stuff because I wasn't used in
navigating life as a visually impaired person, and locked on
his door when your answer said, hey, something is wrong.
You need to call a doctor. Something is terribly wrong.
I can't see you. And that's so I ended up

(14:15):
in a hospital for two weeks where they ran a
bunch of tests and batteries of tests and and then yeah,
as I said, well, we don't know what's wrong with you.
They did MRI scans and all that kind of stuff,
and they sent me to the first optimotitist, and that's
how it all came out.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
So they sent you to that ophtalmologist and then they said, yes,
you're you're definitely you've definitely damaged your optic nerve beyond
beyond all recognition, beyond repair. Yeah. Unfortunately, when the optic
nerve is damaged, it even even in the United States,
we still can't fix it really, so that that's this
is still a problem even in America. This is a problem. Yeah,

(14:55):
even today, this is a problem in the United States. Yeah, yeah,
it's it's it's very frustrating. Okay. And then and then
what so you went to this doctor, then you discovered
that you're blind, and then how did you you know,
how did you kind of you know, adapt to being
a successful blind person and things like that, you know,
what actions did you take and really walk through walk

(15:16):
through some of those experiences in your journey.

Speaker 4 (15:20):
Okay, when that was first told to me, when they
said that to me, and they said, you need to
come back in nine months because you just want to
see maybe something has changed or whatever. And that is
what prompted me to go to the next two oath
of others. The foot there's no bloody away in a whole.
I'm getting to wait two months because if it is
physical damage, maybe it can heal, but if it heals

(15:42):
with a scar, it might be permanent, so rather let
me cover my bases, so I went back with the wind.
The ambulance dropped me off at home again, and at
that stage was on my own. I've been divorced for
more than a decade by then, so I was used
to living on my own. And I felt incredibly sorry

(16:02):
for myself. It was literally how can life be so cruel?
So unfair? And it was only when I realized, well, yeah,
I could feel like it, but it's not going to change.
It's not going to prove anything. The task is up
to me. And yeah, so I started learning how to
do the basic things like cooking, but like really basic foods,

(16:23):
like cook an egg and like get a slice of bread,
like put some margarine or butter on it. And I
was working in the retail industry, so a lot of
these salespeople would come and see me and I'll ask
if I needed anything, And that's how I got mustache.
My shopping done at that point in time. And that's
when I started looking for organizations for the visual Impairment

(16:46):
Land and I came across a National Council for the
Bland and so I registered there that they were where
I was living approximately one hundred miles away from them,
so I knew I wouldn't be able to just get
down back in a day because our transport system is
not lack in the States, it's quite fragmented and segmented.

(17:11):
So I contacted my mother because I hadn't lived with
her for years, and I asked her could I stay
there for a couple of nights. I just want to
go and registered the National Council for the Blind, and
then I explained it, but it happened, and why I
want you to do that because she can understand the
whole feasun And all of a sudden evans to registered
the Blind Counsel for the Blind, and it was within

(17:34):
a day or two were staying the Irena. Something was
wrong with my mother. She was doing really strange and
odd things out of completely out of character for her,
and so I called her doctor, made an appointment and
they referred as to a neurologist. I ran a battery
of turstic came out that my mother's got dementia, and

(17:54):
that put me back into the thing. Oh man, I'm blind.
That's I hardy enough to deal Now I've got to
learn to deal with us as well. In a manner
of speaking. That put me in a position where I
had to learn pretty quickly how to take care of
somebody who took care of me for the majority of
my life, you know, when I was a kid growing up,

(18:16):
somebody who cooked, made food for me and all that
kind of stuff. So within a year, yeah, I managed
to learn to do all the basic chores and get
your own because I can do online shopping, but I
prefer walking. It's so you can get to interact with
people that way. And yeah, it actually induced me to
learn a lot quicker than what I would have had

(18:37):
I've been left on my own.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
Absolutely, you are, so you are one hundred percent right. Yeah,
dementia is really frustrating someone someone we know, how I
know somebody who has it. It's it's it's very, very,
very frustrating. So yeah, that's that's that's tough. That's definitely tough.
But you definitely have to keep walking and keep moving forward.
Absolutely you do. Yeah, you were saying how you did

(19:02):
a lot of active things, you know before twenty eighteen,
before you became blind. So why don't you kind of
walk through why don't we kind of rewind and why
don't you walk through you know your young adult life
and what you did in university, and then what you
did when you started working, and then all the active
stuff you did. So kind of what happened before before
twenty eighteen, Why don't you walk through that?

Speaker 4 (19:24):
Okay? When I finished high school in those days, when
South African males finished high school, it was a conscription
to the military because the South African border War was
still on in those days, and the only way out
of it was to do an apprenticeship or go and
study something. And I had no idea what I wanted
to do with my life. So I did an apprenticeship

(19:47):
as an artism and then I heard about new technology
that was coming in plc's programmable logic control systems, and
I wanted to learn about that because it wasn't something
freely available. Yeah, I'm talking about really early nineties. So
I started working in a manufacturing plant installing new equipment

(20:09):
all to figure out how this stuff works, and got
off at a job. I worked as a production manager
in a manufacturing environment for more than a decade. In
that time, I got married, had a child, get divorced.
Then I saw the writing on the walls because imports
were coming in from China and Brazil cheaper than our

(20:30):
manufacturing cost. And so quit went to the bush and
I did my diploma's ranger and I loved that. That
was the best time outdoors I've ever had. I was
staying in reserves with like lines running around. It was amazing,
it was beautiful. And that was what I got into

(20:50):
my mid forties. I realized I cannot carry on like that.
I need to settle down, and especially because I've got
your sun and once you see him, and that's how
I got into the rear retail industry when I went blind.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Absolutely, yeah, that's that's so beautiful. I've actually been to Swaziland.
I've actually been to East Spatine by the way, and
I've actually been to one of those reserves and my
my jeep was actually chased by an elephant. So yeah,
elephants are amazing. They're They're truly they're Yeah, being out
in the bush in Africa is it truly is a

(21:27):
truly spectacular thing. It's it's an absolutely beautiful, beautiful, beautiful experience.
There's there's just no other way to It's the epitome
of beauty and the epitome of life. For sure. Yeah,
how did you. Yes, I was.

Speaker 4 (21:43):
Fortunate in the last main reserve where I stayed on,
which was a large reserve, private arn, but it was
fifty fifty one thousand hectes and this guy had the
Big five on it. And on the last two nights
that I was there, a few of us, I think
I threw a four of us. We decided to no,

(22:04):
we want to go to camp out. So we went
to the top of a ridge and decided we get
to camp under the stars, made a fire, had a barbecue,
watched what we could have the night's life, but like
work up really early in the mornings, and watched the
world come to life around me. And I am so
fortunate that I was able to experience things like that. Nobody,

(22:26):
nobody that I know apart from that the three that's
been camping with me does things like that, And it
was incredible. And I know I'll never have the opportunity again,
and there are so many that will never be able
to That's why I say unfortunate I did things like that.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yeah. Yeah, it's watching watching the savannah get up in
the morning is truly a spiritual experience. Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (22:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, that's so beautiful. Have you ever been back to
that park though? Have you ever been? Have you ever
been back to that particular reserve now as a blind
person to have an experience a similar experience, but from
a blindness perspective, No, I have not been back. That's surprising.

Speaker 4 (23:04):
Yeah, I've been. I've been to the bush once, but
it was for a very short period and it was
literally when I went scuba diving, because we're on a
reserve near the ocean. But I've never been back to
those kind of reserves, so those those large ones with
the elephants and things. I wouldn't really chance it. Now
you've got your heavi, your wits about you when you're

(23:26):
walking on and on foot in that kind of environment, Well, yeah,
of course, of course you do.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
Yeah, that's why it's fun, that's why it's beautiful and
absolutely absolutely amazing. Yeah. Yeah, but I love I loved it.
I absolutely adored it. It's getting getting to see a
giraffe in the wild as opposed to on a TV
show or in a zoo. It's like, you can't even
compare to see the beauty of nature in nature. It's
just it's just another it's just another level of existing. Basically,

(23:55):
about how beautiful the animals are. How you know, you
would think an animal is really beautiful, but then when
you see it out in the environment, you see it's
you know, there's ticks everywhere, there's bugs flying around. You know,
it's actually a pretty it's a pretty it's a beautiful place,
but it's also a pretty hostile place at times. So
you know, it's it's it's something else. Yeah. The other

(24:17):
thing you mentioned too that really deeply fascinates me in
two ways. You mentioned skydiving and scuba diving. You've done both, right,
so why don't you walk through your experiences doing both
skydiving and scuba diving. They're both fascinating.

Speaker 4 (24:33):
Okay, the skydiving things started off as almost a day.
Somebody said me, but you won't do that, and I'm
normally up four days. So I thought, well, let me
go and try that, and I'll started off doing the
static land progressions. That's where you you get a static lane,
you get onto the cable inside the planet. As you
drop away, it opens you canopy automatically.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah, just for the for the listeners at home who
are a little bit just to interject it, to clarify,
for the listeners at home. A good analogy is if
you if you ever watch YouTube videos of like airborne
troops in the United States or paratroops jumping out of
a jumping out of a plane, that's what the static
line is. That's how their shoots open automatically. And that's

(25:13):
very different from automatic freefall and a shoot you have
to physically open. That's two totally different things. So you
started with the skeet static line.

Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah, yeah, And to me, the whole objective was to
actually do the free falling, the sky diving, not just parachuting.
So to get there from the static line progressions would
have taken me a long time and been really expensive.
So I did a conversion course to what they call AFF,
which is accelerated freefall, and then from your very first

(25:44):
jumper that you do free falling, but you do things
like a three sixty left, three sixty right, stabilize and
open up, or some assault forward, some assault backward, and
then trekking and things like that, but that's it's you're
free falling. And I did that as well, which was amazing,
and yeah, so I'm really glad I did that, but

(26:04):
I would not do that now that I cannot see
because you need to know where you're going and what
you're doing. And I'm not saying you wouldn't know which
way is up or down, but you need to be
able to fly to land safely.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
And yeah, that's actually that's actually the most dangerous part.
The part, the most dangerous part of the dive is
the landing. They're getting onto the ground part. That's always
the most complicated. It's a lot harder than people think. Yeah,
that's really tricky. Actually, yeah, yeah, that's that's really fascinating.
How many jumps did you successfully do after you got licensed?

Speaker 4 (26:38):
To be honest with you, it's a long time ago.
I don't remember. It was before I started taking what
I did for a living seriously and before I got married. Sure,
but it's around thirty.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Forty just okay, around thirty or forty times interesting, Yeah,
because yeah, now there's some you know, famous, famous people
who have like thousands of jumps, you know. But that's
that's interesting. That's really fair, okay. Yeah. And then the
other hobby that I find is actually more beautiful and
more interesting because you can see animals and see wildlife
is scuba diving. Right, So yeah, what what can you

(27:11):
tell us about the elements of scuba diving, and you
know how you how you got into that.

Speaker 4 (27:18):
That is actually a very interesting story on itself. It
was somebody I know, completely blind, guy's got two prosthetic
eyes and his hobby is scuba diving. So I asked him, like,
what's the why are you doing that? You, I mean,
you can't see anything, so why are you bothering? And
what you said to me is you get a completely
different sense of feeling, sense of being when you're downe under.

(27:42):
And then my first worry was not what about sharks.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
And sharks by the way, I love sharks. Sharks are beautiful.
The sharks are really beautiful creatures. Actually they're really cool.
Yeah some of them. Some of them are actually just
downright ugly and look nasty. There one species begin here
called the ragged chooth with the teeth, if I could
explain it, the teeth are literally ragged that one pointing forward,

(28:09):
one pointing back, one pointing up, one pointing to the side.
They just looked like mean and nasty. However, what I
did is because of my concern about sharks, I had
a look and I researched into it, and there are
actually very few shark dates internationally across the globe. They
prey more people die from falling off chairs. Actually, the

(28:33):
chance in America, the chance of dying in a car accident,
or dying of dehydration, or dying of food poisoning, or
dying on many things, the chance of actually being eaten
by a shark is ridiculous. I mean, you'd have to
I'm not trying to say it never happens. Certainly it does,
but you have to try really hard. And in almost

(28:55):
every case where somebody does get quote unquote bitten by
a shit, when it does happen, typically the shark bites
very lightly and then realizes that they don't want to
eat the person. They just start off. They usually get
scared and just start off. Usually, yeah, yeah, that is true.

Speaker 4 (29:11):
So anyway, he convinced me, his name is Leon. He
convinced me, will come try it out. And because I
hadn't done it before, they arranged a safe environment, which
was literally a very deep swimming pool where I could
put the gear on, go down and learn how to
breathe underwater and things like that. And I did that,
and I loved it, and I wanted to try the ocean.

(29:34):
But then the regulation laws you've got to do a
whole course and curcified before they take you into the ocean,
which I don't really have the time for. And so
I said to them, I'd love to try it, but
I can't do it. I don't have the time, all
the funds literally, because it's not a cheap party. And

(29:57):
it was about a year later. I got a phone
called this year in June, beginning of June, and I
was asked, like, what are you doing mid July. They said, no,
I've got nothing planned. Why what's up? They said, well,
we're going to come fish at home. We're going to
take you to the ocean, can try scuba diving with us.
There's a whole bunch of people we're busy training what
they call dive buddies. Now what that is. The organization

(30:20):
was called is called Handicapped Scuba Crew and they specialize
in taking people of all disabilities down, be it from
quadriplegics to blind people, to deaf people to people with epilepsy.
So the person who goes down with you is experienced
in aiding people with disabilities. And yeah, I hadn't absolutely blast.

(30:42):
There was one shark I believe I didn't see it
a reshark, but it was thirty forty meters away, so
it didn't bag me. But I was very lucky. I
got to touch coral, which most divers are not a
larger but being visually impaired, they allow you to touch
certain things and so yeah, absolute blast.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
It was.

Speaker 4 (31:03):
A sense of calm and peace if I could put it,
put it to you that way. And when I got out,
there were sights of people that I could speak to,
so it's like an inclusive thing and being part of
a community. It was absolutely great.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
Yeah, that's really beautiful. Yeah, I've done. The other hobby
that's similar, not comparable, but similar is snorkeling, and I
love snork Snorkeling is actually really cool too. I actually
did it in Hawaii where we got on a boat.
We went out to the ocean and they said okay,
everybody jump in, and we had our wet suits on
and our snorkels, and then you can see turtles and

(31:44):
things like that. So that was that was the closest
I've ever done to scuba diving, and I really loved snorkeling.
Snorkeling is a lot of fun too, and less less
technical than scuba obviously, but still you can see incredible
things if you go to the right to the right
location for sure.

Speaker 4 (32:01):
Yeah, gent what was what was great is the dive
Baddy that went down with me. He's a very experienced
scuba dive and he was explaining things because you figure
out a tactile means of communication. And what I was
very surprised at is the amount of sound underwater. Even

(32:22):
the coral makes a noise, like a crackling sound.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (32:25):
Absolutely, And there were whales wells, I'm just trying to
think miles probably about twelve thirteen miles away. You can
hear them from twelve thirteen miles Because I heard this
and I thought what and after they explained to me
like what it was, but apparently there was a loggerhead
turtle playing with the ray eel as well that everybody

(32:46):
was looking at, which I didn't see, and they didn't
want me to go and touch moreally easel ills now
think it.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
But it was great, absolutely, Yeah. Yeah. The most the
most impressive scuba diving story I've ever heard, of course
is my Arpus Teacher from Netflix. That's a great one.
Surely you've watched my octopus teacher. Right, Yeah, yeah, that's
a that's a great story from South Africa too. Yeah,

(33:13):
that guy went down and basically befriends and octopus and
they have a whole beautiful, a whole beautiful relationship under
the water. It's it's actually really really sweet and really
really touching. Well that's that's good. How so now today,
how how much contact do you have with this scuba
organization and how many dives do you do today? You know,

(33:34):
to keep up with the hobby.

Speaker 4 (33:38):
I would love to do it as a hobby. I'm
gonna see how I'm getting to get you getet it
because it ends up being quite costly for somebody in
my position because I lost my my employment and things
like it, so I don't really have an income to
support that kind of thing anymore. Sure, so I've got

(33:59):
to see around how I'd love to do it, but
I have to see it how I'd be able to
finance such.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
Yeah, no, I understand, I understand. I said, Yeah, that's
the problem with scuba diving. That's what people don't understand
is it starts out not expensive, but it's actually very expensive.
The equipment that you have to buy to buy the
good equipment that works safely. You have to buy the
expensive equipment. It's it's you can't cut corners. That's the problem. Yeah,

(34:24):
Which that's why most people don't really get into the
hobby or keep up with it, because it's just too
too much trouble and too costly for most people. Yeah,
that is deeply fascinating.

Speaker 4 (34:35):
And there's quite a bit of trouble. I'm not sure
about the laws on the US, but yeah, even your
scuba tanks. Every year you have to go and have
them pressure taste that and tasted for rest and what defects.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
Yeah, in the States, I mean I'm sure. I mean,
I don't know because I don't do it, but I
would love to. I mean, in the States, it's similar.
You have to have a license to do scuba dive.
You can't not have a license. I mean, I guess
if you have your own swimming pool and you buy
the equipment, I guess nobody can technically know, nobody can

(35:08):
stop you. But you're really supposed to have a license
and go through the go through the course. There's a
practical course where you show the instructor you can use
the equipment, and then there's a theory that you have
to pass, and there's levels of it, there's levels of
experience that they go through. But it's quite a quite
a hobby for some people. And if you're if you're

(35:30):
good at it and you get the right equipment and
you do it safely and you're you're really you have
a good relationship report with the other divers, it's great.
But a lot of times a lot of weird stuff
happens too. So yeah, but I'm glad there's regulation, you know,
I'm really glad for that, because in America there are
some people who sometimes can be irresponsible, believe it or not.

(35:52):
And I'm sure you can believe it. You know, people say, oh,
well my tank is find my equipment. Uh so it's
just it's just a little bit it's just a little
bit rusty, you know. Or they would say it's this
is a little old. You know, that's a pretty a
pretty common thing.

Speaker 4 (36:07):
So after all, the yes, the thing of people doing
that's everywhere. Yeah, you can there was a saying that
I heard people should wear T shirts. Let's say like
I'm like like I don't listen to or I'm stupid
or something like that.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
Yeah, but the the only the only logical problem with
that is that people would never wear t shirts that
admit that. But I believe it to be true, as
as was said, because I'm I'm a teacher, and so
I speak to students every day from all over the world.
And once I was speaking with a doctor, a medical doctor,
and he was aware of my blindness and aware of

(36:47):
my situation, and he said something to me that was
very profound. And I still say to this day, every
person on planet Earth, every person has ability, and every
person has disability. So we all have to accept that
there's that everybody's a liability to some degree or sense
of the imagination. For sure. Yes, that is true. Absolutely, Okay, right,

(37:13):
so after these so after these adventurous hobbies, these fun hobbies,
what are some other hobbies you have pursued in your
life besides the sky diving, scuba diving? What else?

Speaker 4 (37:24):
Okay, I'm the kind of person I always used to
The sport I used to love playing was squash, which
is similar to racketball in the States. So every day
I go walking. I believe I like eating. So I'm
I'm physically quite active and that's really really good for me.

(37:45):
Well it works for me I love it, and I
get to interact with people, and it's taught me to
be more independent, if I could put it that way.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (37:54):
And in between that, I started teaching myself and I've
pretty much learned how to use audacity, so that's great. Yeah,
I'm pretty good with that. And now now it's the
next stick, which is repair.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
Grant. I forget, mate, are you so are you a
podcaster yourself? I forget, No, I'm not a podcaster. I
was looking. I was looking at that, and.

Speaker 4 (38:22):
In our country it's very politically orientated most of the podcasters,
so I try it personally. I'm trying to avoid anything political.
I'm not a political being. And so yeah, and apart
from my life, I don't know what else to speak about,

(38:43):
to be honest with you.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
Well, I know, okay, Well, the reason I asked about
the podcasting generally, when people use Audacity or reprits because
they're podcasters. That's why I ask that. I mean, sure,
you could use those things without podcasting, but generally, hold
on my moment just one second. Generally, if you use
those software, you're probably creating a podcast. As I said,

(39:09):
our great, our great friend in the podcast space, who
is a great friend to the world. Lowis Strahan from
a different way of seeing. She can certainly get you
on the right track for Reaper and Audacity. I don't
know what software she uses. I do know that I'm
fairly certain that she does not edit her own stuff.
In other words, she has someone helping her to do
the audio, the audio editing after the conversation. But she

(39:31):
would definitely be a great resource. But trust me, after today,
we'll get you into our group and you will be
in touch with all of the audio people that we
know around Aaron's opinion, all the other podcasters who are
deeply knowledgeable, more knowledgeable than me certainly about about this technology.
You know, I'm not really a high tech guy. I
just plug in the microphone, push play and go, you know,

(39:52):
and that's fine. That's me. You know, some people are
more are more like artistic and are more technical and
things like that, and that's and I think that's great.
You know, everybody has their own way of doing everybody
has their own way of expressing themselves in the space,
and that's why that's why it's compelling for so many
for so many people. Yeah, yeah, that's really really interesting.

(40:15):
So if you're not a podcaster. Then what what cracked
your interest or what like what made you interested in
Reaper and audacity.

Speaker 4 (40:24):
Yes, how that actually all came about is a lot
of people said me, You've got a voice that's easy
to listen to, and we like listening to you, So
you need to learn how to use your voice. And
so I decided, well, one of the best ways is
to do like an audio recording and then figure out

(40:44):
how to edit it, because I've always just been that way,
Like I'm a pretty independent kind of person, and that's
way I can manipulate it the way I want. If
you understand what I'm saying, and.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
Well, please please go back, I didn't quite understand. Please
explain for the listener what you meant.

Speaker 4 (41:06):
I can do a recording and I could change pauses
to convey meaning or information as as I d necessary influch,
so you can go the sound engineer route or audio
editor route, but it's not going to be originally yours.

(41:26):
If you understand what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
Sort of yes, vaguely, yeah, yeah, I kind of, I
kind of do. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (41:35):
So I started looking at audio description. I actually sent
the National Federation of the Bland in the States and
a mail today and asking asking because that they've got
an audio description institute, so just to find out hard
works and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
And yes, if you're let me let me phrase it
to you this way. So are you are you interested
in participating in audio description?

Speaker 4 (42:00):
Yes? I am most definite today.

Speaker 1 (42:02):
Oh well, well, why didn't you talk to me sooner?
I'll put you in touch with the right people.

Speaker 4 (42:10):
Yeah. I didn't want you beg a naggy. I just mad, sure.
I didn't want to really started like saying, hey, please
do that's true?

Speaker 1 (42:17):
That's true. No, no, no, I totally get you. I totally
understand you. No, no, no, but that's but see, I'm very
open about that. I'm very open, and I believe that
it's okay to put people in touch with the right
people if your intentions are in the right place and
mine and yours are. Do you know Do you know
Jeremy Opperman?

Speaker 4 (42:36):
Jeremy Opperman? Yeah, We've spoken once or twice telephonically, and
I've listened to a few of his webinars where I've attended.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
Yeah, he is a spectacular advocate for audio description in
South Africa. He's been on the show several times you listen.
Did you listen to our episodes that I did with him?
There's like three different episodes that I put together with
Jeremy Opperman. Did did you listen to those? Okay, yes,
did you? No?

Speaker 4 (43:10):
As far as I know, Jeremy Upperman lives in a
western Cape, in the same area Streck and lives in
that area.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
I'm not sure with the geography of that. Suh.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
I'm must actually get hold of him again, because the
last time I spoke to him, it was in the
midst I was busy with the practical counseling of the
logo therapy. I literally had to go and council people
and that that was the practical side. And I'm busy
on the fal affairs, and I was speaking to Jeremy
Upperman about that because it was also about accommodation for

(43:47):
the vision visually paid or people with disabilities, because that's
another vastly different thing. In the States. You guys are
kind of organized, and yeah, it's incredibly difficult and the
situations and.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
Sure, sure, I would not say I would not agree
that we are organized. I don't think. I don't think
there's any society that's organized. I sort of see what
you mean, but perhaps maybe not, but no, yeah again,
later I will send you some of those episodes that
I put together with Jeremy Opperman, because he would give

(44:21):
you a lot of knowledge and a lot of inspiration.
He did one we spoke him and I spoke about
audio description and then I got him to come back
into a history lesson about his family and his whole
family tree and the history of South Africa. And he's
like you, He's a brilliant, a brilliant person in society
and has contributed an enormous amount to knowledge. And so no,

(44:43):
that's why I was asking.

Speaker 4 (44:45):
Yeah, please do please send those I'd love to take
listen to him.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
Yeah, he would be he would be a great contact
for you for sure. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Yeah, that's that's
very interesting. I mean, And what what do you think
you would do? Like, what would what would be your
dream project in the audio description space if you had
the chance to participate? What there's a lot that you
can do? What do you want to do an audio description?

Speaker 4 (45:11):
To be honest with you, I don't know what's available.
I do anything that is meaningful and aids people, whatever
makes other people with visual impayments feel more included in
society or do whatever.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
Yeah, sure, well, I mean I think it's important to
consider that there's a lot of projects that audio description
And it sounds like a bit of an oxymoron when
I phrase it this way, right, but audio description is
can be a visual thing. In other words, many of
the people that are putting together the audio description are

(45:49):
cited people who are who are using their voices to
interject narration into film or TV shows, and that can
and does require at least I think or I've been
given the impression that that that that that that does
require a substantial amount of vision and visual coordination. So
some of that is visual. The other truth about audio

(46:12):
description is a lot of audio description is not visual
at all. There's audio quality control. You could do quality insurance,
quality engineering, right, There's there's a ton that you can do.
You just have to find an appropriate project because there
are a a a plethora of projects that can be

(46:34):
done and that are that are needing to be done.
But you need to find the project that is most
suitable and most amiable. French is my second language. I
forget that word in English, amikable like the most suitable
to to your to your needs and to your skill set. Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

Speaker 4 (46:53):
You know, yeah, I must look at that because I'm
not quite sure where i'd actually for the best, because yeah, yes,
so please, Yeah, I will actually have a look at
that this evening. I'll see what I can find because
I know the sun's going down so pretty much into
the evening. But that's what I'll be doing this evening.

(47:14):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (47:15):
Yeah, very welcome. Absolutely, no, I'll definitely connect with you
later today. And and do you prefer listening to a
podcast or just watching the YouTube videos?

Speaker 4 (47:25):
Even if it's a video like on YouTube or something
I end up listening to I can and see what
they're doing.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
Oh okay, Well, then I would give you I think
I would give you the audio. I would give you
the Apple podcast so that you can hear the intro
and hear the outro and hear the full experience of that.
It's really cool, all right, all right? And then to
go back to something that that happened. So you said
though that you worked in retail, So after you hold on,

(47:52):
after you became blind, you worked in retail. So exactly
what have you done in the business world, By the way,
you obviously worked in the business world for a while too.
Why don't you talk about that.

Speaker 4 (48:03):
I was in retail and personally I'm a tea turtler
as an I don't do, not drink alcollege or a
little choice. And when I decided to get out of
the bush and the tourism industry, was somebody that i'd
met who owned a shopping center. So I called contacted
him and I asked him like, hey, do you pat
snow of anything? And he said, well, come over to me.

(48:26):
I've got a liquor store. I need a manager. Come.
And so that was a challenge because it was an
environment I knew absolutely nothing about. I had no experience
in it either. And yeah, so I did very well
that in the area it was the eastern side of Johannesburg.
Within a year, I taken the store up from sells

(48:48):
volume and under the large liquor retailers and I'm talking
about s breweries. It's well the main beer brewer in
the country. I'd gone from number forty six to number
three the area Richard, and I'd almost double these hells,
which is really really good. But that came from interacting
with the customers because it's it wasn't just a purely

(49:09):
business thing. People came back because I don't I don't
know that they felt welcome and it wasn't the cheapest,
but I did really want it, so yeah, it was
good fun.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
I see that is very that's very entertaining. Why do
you think people felt unwelcome or why didn't people feel welcome?
That's very silly.

Speaker 4 (49:30):
Yeah, I'd made if I could put it to you
this way, I've made a lot of friendly acquaintances with customers.
So they used to pop buy somebody's wife would go
for it, go to the haydresser and how do you
not having anything to do with come in and chat

(49:50):
and invariably buy some beer or something like that, and
vice versa, like the wives would come. But it was
on a purely from business if you understand what I'm saying. Business,
that was it. And yeah, so I got on really
really well because even after it became DYNA, I wasn't
working that people would come visit me at hut and say,
where have you been? We've been looking for you. We

(50:12):
found out where you live, so that's it came to
check up in you. So it was amazing.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
I see, that's that is very that's very interesting. Yeah,
that you had this sense of community there that's really
really encouraging and really good. Yeah. I mean just like anywhere,
you know, in the States, just like it is there,
similar to really how it is everywhere. The majority of

(50:37):
the blind people live a relatively isolating life, you know,
so it it becomes it does become very very difficult,
you know, because as I've told people, when you're when
you now, in my case, I was born blind, so
my life is very different from yours. But when you

(50:57):
when you're born blind as a little boy, you notice
that you're blind. When you're a teenager, you have so
many problems. As a teenager, you don't care. When you're
in your twenties, you care even less because you're angry
about the world and wanting the world to evolve around you.
And then when you're around my age, when you're around
thirty four, you start to notice. You start to notice,

(51:19):
and you start to become self aware.

Speaker 4 (51:21):
You know.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
But that's just me, and that's just in America. You know,
an American person grows up very slowly in comparison to
other societies. You know, it's a very slow maturation, a
very slow maturing process. In the United States, you know,
you're treated like a child until you're in your mid twenties,
so it can be very difficult for people in the

(51:43):
United States and in a very different way, you know.
But yeah, that is that is all. That's all very interesting.
What you know, what service organizations do you participate in
in South Africa? In my case, I participate in the
Lions Club. About what about you? What do you know
about service organizations? And which service organizations do you participate

(52:06):
in in South Africa?

Speaker 4 (52:10):
I don't participate as such in any charitable like the
Lions or anything like that. But when I started studying,
I came across the Victor Frankel Institute. And what that's about.
It was an organization started in an honor of doctor
Victor Frankel, and it's about man search for meaning because
he was the reason why I listened to that guy.

(52:31):
And the advice that he put out is that he
made it through some of the most tragic parts of
life in and out of the German death camps where
he lost everything and still came out positively. He was
an elector in one of the American universities for more
than a decade. Okay interesting, and the rest of the
international community warded him twenty six doctorate degrees for his work.

(52:58):
And one of these things is it doesn't matter who
we are in life, We're all going to have pain
and suffering in one form or another, fields of guilt
and our final reminder's death. And with these with them,
I've met incredible people, from doctors to in neurology to psychologists, psychiatrists,

(53:21):
But everybody is a supportive community and nobody actually breaks
other people down. And I think one of the reasons
why they accept me, I was the first blind person
ever approached them, well in South Africa anyway, I'm not
sure about the rest of the world, because I know
they operate in the States as well. I think the
HQ's in Dallas.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
I'm not entirely sure. I mean I believe it. I'm
sure it's a great organization. I've just never heard of it.

Speaker 4 (53:43):
Yeah, yeah, then where they got me to go out
and do actual counseling. But because I've been on the
path where I felt had lost it, well, I literally
felt like i'd lost everything when I became disabled. And
I know the state of the mental, spiritual, emotional well

(54:05):
being of people in South Africa and about the States.
I did all my counseling on disabled people, and I
had I had a wonderful time. And I'll still do
that when I can, when I get the opportunity, I'll
just go and talk to people shame. The first lady
is somebody who actually really touched my heart. She she

(54:27):
was in a morchor vehicle accident and a crippled her
when she was eight years old, so she was in
a wheelchair. And the second motor vehicle accident was about
fifteen years ago and it cost to her sight. So
now she's blinded, in a wheelchair and her father's life.
And when I was told about her, she was living. No,
she was existing. If I could put it to you that way,

(54:49):
she'd wake up in the morning, take a medication, go
back to sleep, wake up in the afternoon, eat lunch,
listen to laudioer, go back to sleep, wake up, eat
and have dinner, eat and go to sleep. And sorry,
that is not life, that's not living. Yeah. So I
took her on. It was my first challenge, and the

(55:09):
last I heard, she's married, to be engaged. She's flying
around the country and actually starting to live life, and
that to me is more than enough. A pretty huge
mole face. Still, that's what I think about it. Somebody
who's founding themselves and I mean that's incredible.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
Yeah, that's really that's really really encouraging, and it's really
good to know that people can you know, improve their
life and things like that. Yeah. Absolutely, And you said
that you so you said, I think that you you
like counsel people, or you went through some training where
you learned some sort of some sort of therapy. Can

(55:47):
you I didn't quite catch what it was. Can you
kind of go back and explain that further.

Speaker 4 (55:53):
It's logo therapy, which was literally developed by Victor Frankele. Okay,
it is a form of meanings entered psychotherapy, as in,
everything that happens to us has a meaning, and it's
something which I oblige my own life when when I
lost my sight and I felt incredibly sorry for myself terribly,

(56:13):
I suppose now that I look back on it, is
what did it mean to me when I lost my sage?
Because there's there's a lesson. I can either choose to
learn from it and move on or I could let
you crumble me. And it's a choice. And with the
with the aspects of logo therapy. We're always free to choose,
but with a choice comes the responsibility of the results

(56:36):
of our choices. So, yes, I could have chosen to
stay like being upset and angry at the world, But
what would that have got me? And that that choice
is my responsibility.

Speaker 5 (56:51):
Nobody else's right. Sure, absolutely, okay, And it's literally a
barge living your life with a sense of responsibility, but
with a purpose, a meaning, something outside yourself, something bigger
than just you. And the way I look at it

(57:11):
is we all have bad days, but if I've got
a reason to get up, I'll get up no matter what.
And that's what spares me out.

Speaker 1 (57:21):
Yeah, our lives need meaning, for sure, they do. Every
every every life needs needs meaning. And the reason why
we have our life is to find the meaning, you know.
And then my spiritual philosophy about it is then when
you know the meaning of your life, then you're at
the end. Then that's that's the that's the end of
the story, you know. But all of that is is incredibly,

(57:43):
incredibly interesting. Do do you still practice this therapy today?
Do you still counsel and help people today through this
through this therapy?

Speaker 3 (57:52):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (57:52):
I do. I will send you. It's a little bit large.
I cannot send it on email or the sick and
Scuba Diving that it kept and shame it was a
lady that I made there.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
Okay, I would I would love to see your Yeah,
I would love to see your scuba diving. I would
be fascinated to see that. Did you ever put any
of those scuba videos on YouTube or is there is
there a YouTube channel that would show this because I'm
fascinated by the scuba diving too. Absolutely, yeah, I.

Speaker 4 (58:19):
Will actually ask the organization to do because they get
a little bit up timed with me when I post
this stuff through with it and they've been going for
a while. I think it's them trying to get the
marketing and branding soldier that I'm not quite sure.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
Yeah, I would think that, especially a scuba organization, I
would think that they would definitely want want their own YouTube.
I think they would love to put their stuff up.
It's very beautiful, it's very colorful. I think they would
love to have YouTube. I'd be shocked if they didn't.
But yeah, if you can get them to put up
a video of you scuba diving on YouTube, you know,
that would be that would be really really fast. I

(58:54):
would I would love to learn from them. I would
love to see that. Yeah, I don't know. I mean,
I'm sure that you know more more than I. I
don't know what opportunities exist in the United States, you know,
for people who are are blind who are interested in
scuba diving. I don't know. You know what you can
tell I don't know. I don't know what the options
are in the States about that. It's a pretty specific thing.

Speaker 4 (59:14):
So yeah, the organization I did it through here in
South Africa is named the Handicapped Scuba Crew and they
are accredited and affiliated to the Handicapped Scuba Association, which
was registered in the States in Luncheon eighty one, the Holliday.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
Oh so oh so it is an American so there
are American people with disabilities to scuba diving. That's really interesting. Okay, good.

Speaker 4 (59:40):
Yeah, when the directions of the Handicapped Scuba Crew want
should become certified. Because of the legalities of the possible
dangers of going scuba diving, they had to go for
training at the Handicapped Scuba Association in America.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
Right, absolutely, that is it's really interesting. Yeah, yeah, really
really good, really really good. Okay, well that would be
that would be all really fascinating. And then what are
some other things you do in your in your free time?
How do you spend how how do you spend your time?
And how did you find out about a different way
of seeing? By the way, how did you originally find

(01:00:16):
out about Lois? So you just do you just know her?
Have you always been friends with her? How did you
find out about a different way of seeing? And Lois Strahan?

Speaker 4 (01:00:25):
When I became blind, my whole life change, literally, my
whole life change. It's an audity that I'm glad I
went through. It is how many people disappeared which I
thought were friends and evidently we're not. And so I
was looking around and looking for real people. If I

(01:00:45):
could put it through.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
That way, absolutely, I totally understand. I can understand you.

Speaker 4 (01:00:50):
Yeah, I do not quite recall how I came across
Lewistrechen one day I got a numbers the foot, Well,
let me give a call, ok I think, And that's
how we just chat with Marmlin and Lewis put me,
gave me your name and unlooked and found you through
chat gugp on the web.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
Okay, so that's good. That's very that's fascinating. So chat
GPT knows Aaron's opinion.

Speaker 4 (01:01:18):
Yeah, I literally time chen because Lewis said to me, look,
these are the people's names. I don't take any other
contact information. So I typed at times chan Aaron's opinion,
what are Aaron's contact details? And that's how it came
across all your info.

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
That's super cool. So the chat GPT gave you my
gave you my contact card with all the data, and.

Speaker 4 (01:01:43):
They didn't send up in your contact contact card. They
gave me your email address, your YouTube channel because and
it was described you are primarily on.

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
YouTube, right, absolutely, absolutely, but the okay, but then you
found the WhatsApp group. Though you found the public WhatsApp group,
how did you find the WhatsApp.

Speaker 4 (01:02:05):
Group on YouTube?

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
Really? On YouTube? Okay, that's interesting. How did you find
it through? I'm just curious because you you navigated right
into it. How did you find it on YouTube?

Speaker 4 (01:02:18):
I found out about YouTube from chet GGP, and so
I decided, well, I've got nothing to do is let
me see what I can find. Because then I was
actually looking for a URL to see if you had
a website or something like that, and then I came
across the community WhatsApp group, so I thought, well, of
nothing to lose, let me dial in and see if
I can join it. And that's how that worked.

Speaker 1 (01:02:41):
That is really that is so sweet and so fascinating
that chatdpt was able to basically navigate you through the
internet directly to me. That is really cool.

Speaker 4 (01:02:53):
Yeah, and it's the free version of chet ggpcribed.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
That is that is truly fascinating. Absolutely, that is that
is the most fascinating thing I've heard in a long time. Actually,
So that's really cool. Well, we're really glad to have you. Yeah,
it sounds like you're spending a lot of time doing
a lot of listening and a lot of podcasts listening.
And you're going to be a great, a great contributor
here for sure, you know. So I'm sure you have

(01:03:21):
a lot of questions for me, you know, for Aaron Richmond,
Aaron's opinion. So what are some questions you have about
me and about the podcast? And you know, what do
you really want to know? As I say, to get
under my skin and to make me sweat, what do
you really want to know?

Speaker 4 (01:03:34):
How long have you been doing podcasting?

Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
Well, this has been this Aaron's opinion has existed in
some form or another since twenty twenty, so right around
the pandemic is when it got started. Yes, thank you,
which is when a lot of the podcasts that you're
listening to now started during, during, or throughout the pandemic.
Around twenty twenty twenty nineteen twenty twenty, twenty twenty one

(01:03:56):
is when a lot of the podcasts took hold in
the space.

Speaker 4 (01:04:00):
Yeah, okay, thank you, And I'm really honored you to
make sure, thank you so much for responding as you have.
I'm really, really truly appreciate you forever.

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
You're forever welcome. Yeah, you know, what are some what
are some questions you have? Though, I'm sure you have questions,
which what do you want to know.

Speaker 4 (01:04:21):
At this point in time? No, let me think of it.
I'm sure I'll come up with some.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
Okay, all right, well, very good. I think it's.

Speaker 4 (01:04:31):
Something I do want to add because I spoke about
like a veil almost lifting, where I have met incredibly
beautiful people. And I'm not talking about physically or anything.
I don't have no clue what they look like because
some I walk about and I'm talking about people across
cultures across races. Absolutely, they are amazing people out there.

(01:04:55):
And my opinion, through media, we focus on what is
not good, but there's so much good out there.

Speaker 1 (01:05:03):
There is, absolutely you're you're very right, you're And that's
why it's very hard to build up a podcast, you know,
because everybody focuses on the negative and that's why. Unfortunately,
there's a lot of science behind it, but that's why
stories that are bad stories end up getting more views
than stories that are good unfortunately.

Speaker 4 (01:05:23):
Yeah, for sure, Yeah, that's completely understandable. I was talking
to somebody about about of this morning. I mean, we
can do one really good thing, right and nobody would
really know. Sorry, we could do ten really good things.
Nobody will know. But you do one bad thing, everybody
speaks about it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
That's and that shows a lot about our character as people,
and I find that to be very troubling, you know,
But that's that's the point of podcasting, is to turn
that narrative around and to create something positive for people
and to create something that helps people later. Oftentimes people say,
you know why you do Aaron's opinion, I say, for tomorrow,

(01:06:02):
for the future, so that in the future, when we're
all old people. We can look back on it and
learn from it and remember it. You know, there was
an interesting video that I saw from a channel that
I love, but I don't need to name drop it.
But it's a wonderful channel. It's all about philosophy. And
they create an equation, They kind of create a story,

(01:06:24):
a narrative where they say, you know, they say, you know,
they kind of create an imaginary character. We'll call him,
you know, we'll call him, you know, John Smith, and
we'll say that John Smith was a famous musician and

(01:06:46):
he had his music on Spotify for many decades and
many decades, and it was saved, and it was saved
in artificial intelligence until thousands of years later, somebody in
the future finally deleted the very last file of John Smith,
and then John Smith disappeared permanently. So that whole story,
and of course I didn't tell the whole extent of it,

(01:07:07):
but you get the idea. It's important for us to
speak now because because thousands of years from now, there
will be a time, there will be a day in
the future of the universe where eventually someone pushes delete
and the name Aaron Richmond or Aaron's opinion will boof
disappear the name Grant Matthews disappear permanently and they'll forget,

(01:07:30):
you know. Or The other intellectual thing that I struggle
with is, you know, and I have a lot of
ancest questions about my past and ancestors, you know, I
wonder I always wonder about that, like who my ancestors
were from hundreds of years ago, you know. And I
like to think that they listen to Aaron's opinion spiritually,
and I'm sure they do. But it's interesting because there

(01:07:53):
are people from your past that you never met and
never will, but they still are part of you. And
there are people in the future that you will never know,
but they will look back on you. So that's truly
the most compelling argument for why people should why we
should be podcasting. It's because if we don't, then thousands
of years from now, they won't remember us at all,

(01:08:14):
you know, and we want to make sure that they
remember us for thousands of years or something like that
or some or some such story, you know. You know,
I don't make this fascina. Sorry, that's fine, Yeah, yeah,
you want to be remembered in the right way though,
You're very right and unfortunately people are oftentimes remember in
the bad way. Yes, yes, that is yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:08:37):
One of the one of the things that spurred me
on and just after became bland and decided to get
on with my laugh and toss. One of the associated
affiliate groups to the Toastmasters has called speechcraft. Okay, so
I don't know. I didn't know what else gonna be
doing with my time. So some like, what is this,

(01:08:58):
and they said what reach? We break you your people
up into groups, and you go to schools and you
teach children how to compile, research, compile and deliver a speech.
So I said, okay, well sign me up by men,
and I got sent to a primary school, which means
the children are maximum thirteen fourteen years old, and I

(01:09:20):
was given a group of ten children and not to me,
the challenge was okay, first TI, I'm a blind and
it's the first time I'm doing anything outside of like
home as a blind person. So what I did is
I went through the basics of how to do the
research and catch it back with it down to make
it interesting because you've only got say maximum seven eight
minutes that you can speak. And what I did is

(01:09:42):
I listened for the most withdrawn child and it was
a little girl. And this whole exercise was going to
end in a gala evening where all the children went
and spoke in front of their parents that like the
school teachers and everything. So what I did is had
them compile their own speech. And it started about two
months before because I'd meet them once a week. I

(01:10:04):
wanted them to practice, you know, so that they were
okay with what they had to do and say. And
on the first, the first evening, because it was in
the evening that starts doing this, and the first evening,
I'll ask this little girl when that was the most withdrawn,
to please just be the master of ceremonies. And her
response was no, please. I could no, no, don't ask me,
ask anybody else, not me. And I did not want

(01:10:26):
to argue with you, So I left it at that
and somebody else did it. And the next week I
asked her again and she said, but what you asked me?
Why are you picking on me? I said, I'm not
picking on you, I'm just asking did you please do it?
And who knows, maybe you make a big success, And
she said no, someone else I did. Then the third
time I'll asked her again, and she said, okay, but

(01:10:49):
what happens if I make a mistake? Not the way
I look at it is we're all human. We all
make mistakes, and it's part of being human. You make
a mistake, but in that mistake, we get to learn
what to do differently, maybe not what maybe what we
should not be doing at all. And my response is,
and if you do make a mistake anyway, so what

(01:11:10):
you're busy learning, and that's part of learning is making
a mistake. If you never make mistakes, you're not learning.
So she did it, and then on the fourth time
she came and she asked me, could I please do
it again? So yes, all means. Then a few more
practice sessions went by. Then it was the evening of
the garla and this little girl won second prize. So

(01:11:30):
next day the school headmaster phones me and I want
to know what did you do to that person? So
I said, oh, well, I'm in trouble. So I said,
I don't understand what you're asking what happened? And he
said no, that little girl was too shy to stand
up in a class and read out of a book.
And now she won second prize in a public speaking garla.

(01:11:54):
What did you do? And my response is I didn't
absolutely nothing. She did the work all assages you capable,
and I gotcha to believe in assault.

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
That was it. Yeah, that's so sweet. You know. In
my case, if you can't tell I love public speaking,
I was actually born well, when I was born. It's
actually interesting. I was immersed in audio content from day one.
My parents because of my variety of health issues that

(01:12:27):
you can tell that I have. I have many health issues.
My parents had to drive back and forth to hospital
when I was just a little guy, just a little infant.
And so what they would do in the States at
that time is they would put on talk radio shows
and we would listen to the talk show hosts, one

(01:12:48):
of which has several of which I've passed away. Now
this is, you know, thirty thirty four years ago, now,
you know, I digress. It always sounds funny. I had
a funny experience too, meeting with relatives of our of
my father and my father's relative now is an older
person who has who has children, and the children are

(01:13:08):
all people who are born in like you know, twenty fifteen,
twenty ten, and then they meet Aaron and then I
have to say what year I was born, and then
and then, and then it occurs to me, I was
born in a different century. I was born in the
nine I'm from the nineteen hundreds. You're not even you're
you know, you're not even from my century. You know.
It's so funny, you know, to finally get to meet

(01:13:29):
people who are born young people now and they don't
know what the nineteen hundreds were. So that's that's so,
that's so endearing now. But to digress, I was immersed
in audio from a very very very small young age,
and so my whole life has been audio up until
twenty twenty, and I was always listening to podcasts, but

(01:13:51):
I felt that the podcasts for blind people were simply
not reciprocating and not reflective of being open to opinion,
being open to having, you know, having a full conversation,
and that really bothers me. So that's why I created
this experience for you and many others around the world,
to give you, to give you the chance to speak

(01:14:11):
about what's important. And that's why it means everything to me.
So that's that's the why. That's absolutely the why.

Speaker 4 (01:14:18):
Yeah, yeah, great, thank you. I must say I'm thoroughly impressed.
It may be because of my experience A Pierre, I'm
in the middle of I'm in the area called College Ten.
I don't even know much about South Africa.

Speaker 1 (01:14:34):
I've heard of that province because it downloads. The majority
of my episodes are downloaded in that province. I can
see the downloads are yes.

Speaker 4 (01:14:42):
And in my experience and the disabled communities, we are
most frequently told what we cannot do, not where we
can and so. And it's also prompted from that little girl.
I believe we can do anything. Yeah, we have five
and our souls.

Speaker 1 (01:15:01):
Absolutely we can do anything. We can do anything we
want as long as we set our mind to it.
It is so true. Yeah, that's beautiful. Do you still
do you still participate with Toastmasters today and that whole organization?
Do you still help them today? No?

Speaker 4 (01:15:22):
I stopped going there a little while ago. All actually
the while ago, about two three years ago. It's when
I started taking my studies. It with the logotherapy because
all the lad is online and so downo the silence
started assignments and then it was literally traveling around and
counseling people because I look for people from all walks
of life. If I could pudably from young people up

(01:15:45):
to I think the oldest person was in their seventies.
And to me the challenge was, I mean, I'm a
lot younger and like half an age, but the way
I approached it was everybody's life is worth it, and
so word, if you make mistakes, and that's beautiful, just

(01:16:06):
accept the beauty for what it is. We all make mistakes,
so yeah, we all regret them. Is but the beauty
of Vetina Solf is we get the opportunity to learn
what we perhaps should do different they'll not do at all.

Speaker 1 (01:16:19):
Right, Yeah, you're very You're very very right, very very right,
and so that I could not have asked for a
better episode. I think we really covered everything that you
wanted to cover everything. I think we got. We got
a beautiful conversation out of it, as I knew we would.
But so what I want to know is, so if
you can ask me only one more question to really

(01:16:43):
make me sweart, to see if I'm worth my salt
as a podcast or what do you really want to
ask me?

Speaker 4 (01:16:49):
Aaron, You're going to have to give me time to
think about that, because to me, you're with your souls
as a podcast, because I'm able to speak and converse
and connect with you. If I was unable to meket
with you, then I would have Christian Bridge. But I
can connect with you, so.

Speaker 1 (01:17:06):
Very kind I graciously accept that. That's very very kind
of you, and very endearing and very very sweet, very
very moving. Absolutely yeah, you're you are. You are forever
welcome here and here at Aaron's Opinion. And so if
anybody wants to get if somebody wants to get in

(01:17:27):
touch with Grant Matthews, how can you be reached?

Speaker 4 (01:17:32):
If I want to get in touch with me, you
have my email address. You're welcome to send it on
to Would you like to say it all long?

Speaker 1 (01:17:38):
You sure you can give out any any piece of information,
any contact you want people to use to contact you, You
can give it out. Yeah, absolutely, Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:17:46):
It is g R A and T is in Grant
M A T. T as in match two six at
gmail dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:17:58):
All right, very good. I wish you the only thing,
the only thing I wish for you is further happiness
and further success, Grant, So thank you for joining us today,
and of course thank you. Do you know how we
end an episode here on Aaron's opinion. What do we say,
Oh no, I have no idea. Well, I'll tell you

(01:18:19):
thank you for listening, have a wonderful day, and of course,
help one person today, help one million people tomorrow. You've
been listening to Falling from a Chair to a new
perspective on living with Grant Matthews right here on the
Aaron's Opinion podcast, the podcast for blind people where we
speak about critical issues in the blackness community and all

(01:18:39):
other issues from across the universe and galaxy. Grant, you
did a great job. We'll get you in a moment.
If you want to make your life easier, and if
you want to get in touch with the show, there's
a great way to do that. Ask me to send
you my electronic business card. If not, though, if you
want to do it the hard way. Aaron's Opinion six
at gmail dot com. AA R O N S O
p I n io N six at gmail dot com.
One two four zero six eight one nine eighty six

(01:19:01):
nine one two four zero six eight one nine eighty
six nine at Aaron's Opinion on Instagram. Don't forget about
continuing to follow that page. We have more and more
followers there. Don't forget about of course, joining the public
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group Aaron's Opinion Podcasting Community. Don't forget those groups are

(01:19:22):
both growing and are both great places to follow along
with the show and see exactly what's happening. So don't
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that's also great. It's just when you do it through

(01:19:43):
through the Facebook page, it helps to connect listeners and
it helps to show your friends, and it is it's
a huge push through the through the algorithm to see
you know, who's listening and things like that. So that's
it's very fun and very powerful software. Absolutely all right.
Don't forge about our download contest this week. We want
to say thank you to all the listeners from the

(01:20:04):
United States, from Canada, and Australia. Fifty eight votes United States,
nine from Canada, and two from Australia. Of course, that's
those are the downloads. So if you want me to
say your country, then you need to download this and
more and more episodes of Aaron's Opinion, and it is
very competitive. You know, it's interesting. A lot of people
would want to know. Have we ever seen a time

(01:20:24):
when a country actually downloaded more than the United States? Yes?
Once before we actually were overthrown basically by Singapore downloaded
more episodes than the United States in one week, So
it is it is actually possible. Anyway, don't forget about
following along on TikTok. We occasionally post there almost never,
but it's always good to know that we do have

(01:20:45):
a TikTok. Don't forget about joining the patreon at Erard's Opinion,
and I can certainly send you that Patreon if you
struggle to find that it's not on the card, I
don't think because I always like to say it's a
search for it. But if you can't find the patreon,
just you know. Anyway, following along on x would be
great too, and on YouTube at Aaron's Opinion TV. And

(01:21:05):
of course you don't forget about liking the video, commenting
below and tickling the bell to know exactly when we
premiere the next video on the channel. Remember when premieres.
When premieres happened on the channel, that's when you can
download on Apple podcast or wherever you like to listen
to the show, So that would be a great thing
to do. First of all, we want to say for
one thing, Lois, although you never actually consulted me first,

(01:21:28):
I am still very happy and very pleased to know
that you helped me to get in touch with Grant Matthews,
a great He did a magnificent job as always as
I knew he would, and he's also helping us to
possibly get in touch with more guests from South Africa.
So well, keep listening for that, Lois, though, thank you
for everything you're doing and keeping up your great work
over there in South Africa. We couldn't do it without you.

(01:21:51):
And the only thing that I wish for you, Lois
is the very best of luck with a different way
of seeing, and the very best of luck with your
health and living a healthy and happy life. So Lois,
thank you so much. Grant you too, man. You did
a great job. I never doubted that you would do
a great conversation, but of course you certainly did. And
you know the fact that you have been through so
much in your life and still you know, still you're

(01:22:13):
doing the best you can now that you're an older
person who simply happens to be blind. And I think
you're doing great. So thank you so much, and I
will certainly keep you and Lois in the now we
if and when we certainly do interview other guests that
you have suggested. You know, a lot of times people
give me a lot of guests and they say, are
you going to interview all these people? And I say, well,

(01:22:33):
I hope. So it's just not every guest wants to
be on the show, and not every guest, not every
guest ends up, not every single guest or contact ends
up you know, reaching back out to me. So it's
always good to give me more guests to work with
because not all of them come to the show. But anyway,
we'll let you know about all of that, and of course,
thank you so much. We want to say that both you,
Grant and Lois are always welcome in the Eron's Opinion community,

(01:22:55):
in the Aeron's Opinion family. We also want to say
thank you to all the podcast hosts and radio stations
who continue to share and syndicate the message of Aaron's Opinion.
Across the universe and galaxy. We couldn't do it without
you either, And of course thank you to all the guests, past,
present and future who continue to share the knowledge with
us each week here on the show. We couldn't do
it without you either. And of course thank you to

(01:23:17):
you the listener at home from the United States, Canada,
Australia and many many more even South Africa of course,
for continuing to download this in many episodes of Aaron's Opinion.
Don't forget. We know there are millions, millions and millions
and millions of choices in that podcast catalog, and we
thank you for choosing Aaron's Opinion. All right, we have
a very techye episode coming up next for you here

(01:23:38):
on Aaron's Opinion, and then we're going to do a
lot more exciting episodes coming right around the corner. So
of course, thank you so much everybody. That was a
wonderful conversation and have a wonderful, wonderful day. So until then,
don't forget you're listening to the Erin's Opinion podcast. My
name is Aaron Richmond, and until next time, be well everybody,
and of course help one person today up one million

(01:24:00):
people tomorrow,

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Falling from a chair to a new perspective on life with Grant Matthews

CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist