Blind & Boundless - Alex Castillo's Perspective

Send us a text

What happens when you've lived your whole life with low vision, but refused to acknowledge what that means? Alex takes us on a journey through his experiences growing up as a self-described "mischievous kid" with visual impairment—from misunderstanding what "clear vision" truly meant until age 14, to the transformative moment when other blind people left him behind because he wasn't using a cane.

Through candid stories and thoughtful reflections, we explore the realities of navigating daily life as a blind person. Alex shares practical insights about riding public transportation, finding restaurant bathrooms by listening for door sounds, and dealing with well-intentioned strangers who sometimes help without asking. His experience at the Louisiana Center for the Blind proved pivotal, teaching him that the limitations he faced weren't about blindness itself, but about societal barriers and lack of resources.

Alex challenges common misconceptions about blindness with refreshing directness. No, blind people don't have superhuman hearing—they simply use their senses differently and more intentionally. When asked what beauty means to him, his answer reveals profound wisdom: "Think of the most perfect thing you can imagine... now you carry that and hit a wall, a little chip comes off. That's beauty—that little imperfection within the perfect."

As someone who now works professionally helping others with vision loss, Alex's perspective bridges personal experience with broader advocacy. His message resonates beyond disability: be patient with yourself, find your community, and remember that giving to others ultimately enriches your own life. Listen now to change how you see the world—even if you can't see it at all!

Support the show

Watch more episodes here: https://respectingperspectives.com

ALL AWALLARTIST SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/artist/39sD9CWOPR3FpdzHrJK80w?si=o8wu4ydBSdG--xlmG3566Q
APPLE MUSIC: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/awallartist/1519132019
SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/awallartist
IG: https://www.instagram.com/awallartist
FB: https://www.facebook.com/AWALLARTIST
X: https://x.com/awall_artist
TIKTOK: https://tiktok.com/@awallartist

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I expected kind of like an old school, almost like
a radio station cabin, I don'tknow, cool, you got a desk with
some microphones on it and thenthat's it.
It's like that, and then, yeah,that's pretty much what I
expected.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
That's cool Okay.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
But yeah, this is cool.
You guys got a nice spaciousstudio.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, but yeah, this is cool is that you guys got a
nice, nice spacious, yeah,studio, uh, yeah, something I
wanted to describe to you that Iwanted to save to the end,
because I was kind of painted apicture for you, right, uh, or
at least I tried to, with thethings that are in the room, and
there is a huge banner that'sbehind you, okay, okay, and it's
about 11 foot by 11 foot.

(00:52):
It's pretty large, and it has ageometric pattern in the back
it's like circles, okay, and ithas a large text at the top and
large text at the bottom calledrespecting perspectives, okay,
and then there is my logo thatis in the middle here.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
What is your?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
logo.
Yeah, so my logo is a diamond,okay, and at the bottom there is
it's three colors it's a darkblue, it's a light blue and it's
a what they call hippie green.

(01:34):
So it's kind of like a froggreen, okay, like a lighter
green, kind of right in themiddle, like a Kelly green, okay
, and then there at the verybottom there is on each corner

(01:54):
of the diamond there is adifferent geometric pattern that
is totally different from theother one and it's a lot of like
repetition within small shapesand patterns and the logo.
Those are the four corners, andthen in the middle is a teepee

(02:20):
that is set up that kind oflooks like an A, okay, for AWOL.
That's where the A comes from.
And there are two rivers next tothe teepee, one on the left,
one on the right, okay, and therivers are green and the teepee
is light blue, and underneaththe teepee there's another

(02:40):
smaller diamond that has whatare roots.
So it basically shows the kindof connection with like life on
earth itself, like what earth isright.
And then you have the teepee,which is like your tribe, your
community, you know, um, andthen next to you you have the

(03:02):
water, kind of the waters thatflow, okay, up and down here.
Yeah, yeah, and yeah, it's likea vinyl.
And then above that is somestars and coming from the teepee
is smoke, a little strandstrand of smoke.

(03:27):
What does that signify?
That signifies the things thatwe have to do on this earth and
in order to, you know, make itto the next life and even, like
on planet earth, like to make itto another planet.

(03:48):
And at the very top of the logothere is Saturn, which has a
bunch of rings around it and,yeah, it's very detailed.
The Saturn at the top is verydetailed and the roots at the
very bottom are very detailed.
Okay, and it's um, yeah, mangosh, we worked on this thing.

(04:11):
I'm so proud of this logo.
Yeah, it started out somethingtotally different, you know, but
through like persistence anddirection, I was able to talk to
the graphic designers and saythis is what I want, paint some
pictures for them, help them,walk them through it, and after

(04:32):
like four or five revisions, wewere able to make it.
Yeah, man.
So thanks for being here, dude,yeah of course, I really
appreciate you taking the timeout of your schedule and the
time to really just get to knowme a little bit and for me to
get to know you.
Yeah, and I met this young manat Interfusion Festival.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Okay are we starting already.
You know what?

Speaker 2 (05:02):
uh all right, because it kind of sounds like you're
starting already.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
I'm like hold on a second.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Drum roll, all right.
So I have what I would considera creative in all aspects of
life, a musician, a coach ofmany sorts in the organizational

(05:42):
development field Okay, whatthat spans right, and overall
his help and let's see hereposition in working with the low
vision population and, yeah,helping them.

(06:04):
So I have Mr Alex here.
How here?
How you doing with me?
I'm doing great, I'm doinggreat.
How about you?

Speaker 1 (06:12):
uh, it's good to be here having some of this
delicious coconut water that yougot for me.
Amazing stuff, dude, doeswonders, it's absolutely um and
then just kind of ready to haveour conversation.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, um, nice dude, I let me.
I want to thank you for forbeing here.
I know, uh, we had a few talksbefore this.
Yeah, you know, and we kind ofI really just wanted to get to
know you and ask you questionsand really get to develop a

(06:45):
relationship with you.
You know, I like to let peopleknow.
You know how I met you, and itwas Interfusion, sure, yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
Do you want to tell that story?

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah, I think we should start with that, because
that's kind of how that's a goodway to kind of segue into what
we have for after that.
To kind of segue into what wehave for after that.
I met this gentleman atInterfusion and he really
represented something at thattime and I saw Alex walk in the

(07:18):
door with his walking stick andI don't know if we've said this
yet I said you worked with theblind, but alex is blind.
And he walked in with hiswalking stick and I immediately,
you know, just like, wanted tohelp him uh, at you know at some
capacity, and then I realizedlike he was good, like he walked

(07:42):
in, you know, found where thedrum was and just started
playing it and, um, yeah, I wentimmediately, went over to to
speak with him and, uh, he wasextremely inspiring and it was a
really cool moment to reallyjust you know, just kind of like

(08:04):
process what was going on atthe time, and you really were a
beacon of hope for me at thattime.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
I appreciate that yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, it was.
It was a good meeting.
I hope that I wasn't dismissiveor I didn't come off that way
no, not at all open and and andwanting to basically say hi,
because do people know whatinterfusion is?

Speaker 2 (08:35):
yeah, good question, right let's, let's break that
down, yeah, yeah.
So interfusion would you?
Why don't you tell them what itis?

Speaker 1 (08:41):
I'll tell them what it is for me.
Interfusion for me is it's avery big community event and you
can go there and do anythingwithin reason.
So a lot of people go for thedancing, because there's a lot
of dancing.
A lot of people go for themeditation, for acro yoga, for

(09:06):
self, you know, working onyourself, type of workshop, self
help, self help, um, and, andI'll I'll say this, someone
described the outfits of acouple and it was like the man
was wearing a belly shirt andshorts, but not true shorts free

(09:26):
falling, yeah, free falling.
And then the lady had likesparklies in her hair.
I just knocked this over.
No, you're good.
Sparklies in her hair, likebeautiful gray hair.
So like when I say it's open,it's.
It's like, yeah, anything,anything, you could go there and
wear a tail and horns if youwant, and then you'll be all
right.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Love that, love that.
Yeah, I would totally agree,and we're actually going to have
Steph on after you and we'llmention Interfusion there too,
because she's a big role in that.
But yeah, man, why don't youtell everybody you know, tell

(10:06):
the respecting perspectivesguests here, give them a little
bit about, like your childhood,kind of where you grew up, and
um yeah, give a few details.
Maybe if you throw a fewstories in there and, uh, kind
of let people know you know whoyou were as a kid okay.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
So as a kid I was a bad boy.
I don't mean like like manheart, like a wrestler bad boy
like I was like mischievous, avery mischievous kid, um, I
don't know what that was about,but it was it.
It's like I remember one storywhen my cousin asked me if I
wanted water and I said yeah,and he went and got a glass and

(10:47):
then thought twice and came backwith a plastic cup.
So I don't know what he thoughtI was going to do with that.
But I was a bad kid.
I grew up with low vision, so Ialways had low vision, okay, um
.
And then later on, uh, I lostmore vision and I started using
the white cane, um, butinitially it was just.
It was just a little rebellious, smart ass talking child, um,

(11:12):
you know um, would you wait asecond?

Speaker 2 (11:14):
would you compare it to like dennis the menace?

Speaker 1 (11:17):
I don't know if I I think I would.
Yeah, I'm familiar with dennisthe menace, I think like dennis.
So I'll tell you a story.
Um, all right.
So so I love stories.
One one day I'm about four,three or four years old.
I'm living in the dominicanrepublic.
We live in a very unique place.

(11:38):
Dominican republic was wherechristopher columbus landed
first, right, um, okay, and thesp, the Spaniards, build this
wall, kind of where I lived.
So I grew up.
My back wall was this500-year-old wall that was built
, and that's how I grew up.

(12:00):
And so, I don't know, I'mstanding at the park that's also
on the same block.
It's old, it's got cannons orwhatever, and we're looking at.
There's something going on.
I don't remember what it was, Ijust remember there was this
lady and she pushes me out ofthe way to get a better view.
So, yeah, remember, I'm likethree or four.
So I tap Excuse me, excuse me.

(12:22):
You know like I'm standingthere.
And she's like no, you weren't.
I'm like yes, I was, I wasstanding there.
You pushed me out of the way,and then she was like how dare
you?
And so you know again talkingabout how, what kind of a kid I
was.
All right, you wait there.
She's like what are you gonnado?
I'm gonna go get my uncle.
Oh shoot, no, that's where thestory goes bad, because uncle

(12:46):
root, he just started hitting onher.
Oh no, but the point is that Iwas not a kid, that would stay
quiet yeah, yeah as a child andthen that's still rebellious
against the grain.
Against the grain um, not in thebox.
Yeah, so always kind of beenthat way, gotcha.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Gotcha.
Yeah, why don't you?
Where did you?
What area did you grow up in?

Speaker 1 (13:12):
I grew up as an early childhood was in Dominican
Republic, in the capital, inSanto Domingo, and then, when I
was about four years old becauseI remember I had issues with my
vision always and then whatkept happening was that my mom
had a basically find ways tofund trips to the united states

(13:34):
so that I could have surgery, um, and finally one day she was
like, okay, I'm gonna just, I'mjust gonna stay, this is too
much.
And so she switched careers.
She went from a uh, excuse me,uh a career where she wanted to
have like a medical lab gotcha,and then she started basically
all over in the states and then,instead of owning a lab, she

(13:57):
was like working at a lab yeah,gotcha for like a hospital or
like a school, just a privatedoctor, just a private doctor
yeah, um, and so, yeah, and so Imoved to new york city.
Um, what part of new york, thiscity?
Okay, like, I'm one of thosepeople.
I moved to new york city andpeople like you ask them like
where, where from, and they'relike westchester and you're not

(14:17):
from new york.
Stop it, stop it, stop it, uh.
But no, the city like literallymanhattan, like the first school
I went to was in the bronx,nice, um, I remember, because at
lunchtime and and this is, youknow, kind of going off a little
bit sometimes we would havethey would just rush us inside
like the cafeteria, okay, and Inever thought anything of it.

(14:39):
And then I realized as I gotolder, oh, there were shootings,
they were getting us insidebecause of the shooting.
This was like the Emergencykind of route, yeah, like late
80s, early 90s.
So New York City was a littledifferent.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
Yeah, gotcha.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
Do you remember that?
Is that a memory that you kindof?

Speaker 1 (15:00):
have.
Not a bad, only the only.
The only thing I remember aboutthat is um, you know how it
kind of felt to be a non-englishspeaker with low vision, okay,
in in in the bronx with a groupof kids that may not have been
necessarily the group of kidsthat I would have grown up with,

(15:22):
um, it was just a a mix, gotchamix different colors, different
nationalities.
You know, I came from adominican republic, yeah,
different colors, but basicallyeveryone's dominican gotcha
republic.
You know, good point okay.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
So that's cool.
You were able to mingle with,with different, um, different
kinds of people, yes, and Ithink that's, um, yeah, that's
it's great for your, your, yourown background, because then it
just helps you understanddifferent ways of life you know,
it makes everything not such abig deal yeah, yeah, it's just

(15:56):
whatever.
Great, great point, great point.
Um, let's see here, why don'twe?
Uh, you, you talked about earlysigns of when you were, you
know, experiencing low vision.
So how old were you when youkind of experienced those?

Speaker 1 (16:12):
I was born with low vision.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Yeah, low vision itself.
I was born with low visionitself.
Got you.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
So all through school .
But you know the thing is, whenyou're a kid you don't know
what low vision is, you don'thave any yeah thing to compare
to.
So you know, and I would gowhen I remember being tested for
glasses and somebody maybe itwas my grandma, that that would
that changed the language aroundthere's like, oh, do things

(16:40):
look bigger with these glasses?
And and I thought, oh bet,vision, better vision means
bigger, right, so then do they,do you look bigger?
And I was like, yeah, thatlooks bigger.
And then that was my how Iwould judge things.
And then one day I remember, uh, there was a choice between,
you know, when they do thatnumber number one number two

(17:07):
number.
They do that.
Number number one, number two,number one.
Oh shoot, sorry, you're good.
Um and so, and I remember goingoh, that looks clearer but
smaller, it looks fuzzy butbigger.
Which one is the better one?
I don't remember which one Ichose, okay, but I remember that
, thought that like, yeah, Ihadn't really understood what
clear vision was.
And just to add one more thing,I didn't understand what

(17:30):
clearer vision was until I waslike 14.
So I go to the bronx zoo and Idon't know if you, if you have
ever you know those binocularsthat you can get at the zoo,
like, yeah, okay the ones thatyou put a quarter in.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
they're stationary.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
No, no, no, no, you walk up to them, not those Ones
that you can have or you canjust buy they're like 17 bucks,
okay and then you just take themaround the zoo and what they
look like is two lenses.
Okay, so I'm going to make theshape Yep, basically like this
like a set of real binoculars.
It's just like two lenses.
So what you can do is you canlook through one lens, you can

(18:06):
move that lens and then you canlook through the other lens.
And so I saw that if I lookthrough one of the lenses, I saw
really clear for the first timeand I was like what is going?

Speaker 2 (18:17):
on and what were you looking at?
Do you remember what you werelooking at?

Speaker 1 (18:19):
I was looking at, I think, elk or moose Okay, it was
the Africa portion of the zoo.
So it was like looking at thesavanna and I remember being
amazed like wait, what's goingon.
And I think that was the firsttime that I saw clear things,
because before that it waseither bigger or the small

(18:45):
glasses which were clearer.
But smaller.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
So smaller and clear, or bigger and unclear.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
Right, and so I always chose bigger, because
that's what I thought bettervision was the reason why you
thought.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
that is because you said your aunt, she said bigger
instead of better.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah, I think my grandma said like, instead of
saying oh, is this better?
And I couldn't figure it out.
She was like okay, well, is itbigger?
And I was like okay, yeah, it'sbigger.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
Isn't that wild?
Yeah, that just shows you howsuch a small influence can
actually really carry somethingvery, very large.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
And I want to.
Is it okay if I give you onemore?

Speaker 2 (19:24):
Oh, something, and very very large and I want to.
Is it okay if?

Speaker 1 (19:25):
I give you one more, just, oh, definitely, just
because you know some peoplemight be listening I don't, you
know, I don't know.
And yeah, and sometimes you askkids things and the kids don't
know.
And I just I want to highlightthis by saying, okay, so I grew
up playing the piano, nice, andreading music.
And I remember alwaysstruggling to read music and I

(19:46):
was like I don't, you know, andI'm sitting there with my piano
teacher, mr Fieldman, and hewould be like, okay, what's this
?
And I remember, like gettingclose and looking and reading on
that's a chord.
Okay, so that was more than 20years ago.
Oh, wow, okay, okay, so thatwas more than 20 years ago.
Oh, wow, okay, okay.
Now, maybe when I was I don'tknow 24, 25, I'm sitting there

(20:13):
and I'm imagining chords in mymind and I'm like, okay, I know
the shape of that chord, I knowthe shape of that chord, I know
these notes.
How come I can't read music?
Huh, can you guess why Icouldn't read music?
Because it was harder to seethe notes.
It was hard to see, yeah, and Ididn't understand that.

(20:33):
And so I grew up thinking I wasbad at reading music.
When it was just, when it wasjust I couldn't see it.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
Man, dude, gosh.
So what did you?
How did that influence yourpiano playing as you got older?

Speaker 1 (20:51):
I just got interested in chords, yeah, and listening
playing by ear.
There's a way to read musicwith Braille.
However, from what I hear, it'scomplicated and I'm not such a
good Braille reader like I canteach you the code.
But in terms of like, am Igonna sit there and read a

(21:12):
classical piece and perform itlike no man?
That's yeah, I'm not gonna dothat yeah, seems extensive.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
I'm sure there's there's some people out there
who have, who have thatabsolutely, like you know, if,
if that's their background, butyeah, I could see what you're
saying.
Yeah, um braille, when did youget?
How did you?
How old were you when youlearned it?

Speaker 1 (21:32):
man, I was about, I think, the first time, maybe 24,
okay, 24, so up to and thenwe're gonna, we're gonna, I
think we're gonna touch on thisuntil I went to this place
called Louisiana center for theblind.
Um, I was almost 30.
Um, I kept losing vision andhaving to restart, like go back

(21:59):
and learn how to do things over,and then, and it kept doing
that and doing that, and thenone day, um, you know, I'm
around blind people for thefirst time, because I didn't
grow up around blind people.
I just, you know, I just grewup like a New York City kid,
yeah, doing stupid things.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Right, and I'm around this girl and they all use a
cane, right, these blind people,they're all using canes.
For the first time, I'm aroundblind people and I remember that
we were going to a festival andI knew that we were.

(22:40):
I wanted to go, she wanted togo she was my girlfriend at the
time and she never talked aboutit like we were going together,
right, and that's weird, right,because if, andrew, if you know
I'm going somewhere and you'regoing somewhere, at some point
you're going to be like allright, well, you know either
we'll meet up there, yeah, orsomething, right, but it was
never that.
And so when I finally asked waslike you know, I noticed you

(23:03):
never talk about like youhaven't it was a saint generos
festival, by the way.
It's like how come you neversay that we're going together?
And she's like why I don't wantto go with you?
And I was like, hmm, how come?
Well, and uh, and my cane isunder here, I don't know the
cameras can pick it up, right?
yeah, yeah, um and uh, and shewas like, well, you don't use a

(23:27):
cane.
And I'm thinking, bitch, I seebetter than you, um, and but she
was like, no, you don't use acane.
I was like what do you mean?
She's like, well, you're alwayslike getting lost and we always
have to find you.
Now, uh, one misconception thatpeople have is like that blind
people.
Because the way by people walkwith a cane, uh-huh, we bump

(23:49):
things with the cane and theimpression that the public gets
is that, oh, they're lost andthey're bumbling around.
Yeah, what's actually happeningis we're just making contact
with objects to either get amental map or get direction or
just know what that is.
Or how else would you know thatthere's a trash can in front of

(24:11):
you if your cane doesn't hit it?
Yeah, so you're not gonna avoidthe trash can.
I mean, if I know it's there,I'll avoid it, but if I don't
know it's there and I I feellike there's an object there,
I'm gonna hit it because I wantto know what it is.
Yeah, yeah, um, and so, yeah,and so I didn't use a cane.
I was always getting lost, andthen finally I said, okay, I

(24:35):
need to take on this blindness,still Blindness thing.
And then you know it was a hardthing to do and it starts with
a white cane and for some peopleit doesn't start.
You asked about Braille.
You know, do a little Braille,just enough to, and I'm telling
the story out of order.
The Braille happened firstGotcha.
Do a little braille, justenough to, and and I'm telling
the story out of order thebraille happened first gotcha.
I kind of learned it, forgotabout it, met these blind people

(24:57):
, pretended that I could see,pretended that I, you know
whatever, because I could seebetter than them.
And then ends up they'releaving me behind because I'm
not using a cane and that I'mnot using braille and I'm not
using these things.
And so it's a's sad but it's akick in the ass and sometimes
people just need that.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
Yeah you need, sometimes you need yeah, you're
right Get over yourself, youknow.
Yeah, got to get over that humpevery now and then right and
then you know, you don't knowwhat's on the other side.
Why don't you, yeah, talk alittle bit about the Louisiana
Center?

Speaker 1 (25:31):
Talk a little bit about the louisiana center.
Talk a little bit about thelouisiana center for the blind,
if you could, sure, okay, sothis one, uh, I'll, I'll give
them a plug.
I love giving them plugs, niceum well, let's give them a shout
.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
Hey, shout out right now to louisiana center for the
blind yeah, uh, alex has talkeda lot about y'all and, uh, you
should be proud of yourselvesyes, so what this place is is
like the premier.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
I would say that and I'm not just being biased,
because I went there Like thepremier training for blind
people is actually a center indowntown Ruston, louisiana,
which is a tiny town.
Ruston, ruston, louisiana, it'swhere Louisiana Tech University
is.
Okay, it's a tiny town.
Ruston, ruston, louisiana, it'swhere Louisiana Tech University
is.
Okay, it's a tiny town.

(26:14):
There's a railroad track thatis like maybe 30 feet away from
the center.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Oh yeah, we're talking a full railroad, yeah,
like a railroad.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Yeah, like you're walking down the street and the
buildings shake, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
That kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, yeah you feel it, you feel it and as it passes
by, you're like holy crap.
And so that place is there andit trains blind people, but what
it does is it has everybody,because the other thing is, if
you're blind, only about 10% ofblind people actually have no
vision.
Mostly everybody else has somecolor vision, some something,

(26:58):
whether it's light perception orsomething.
Yeah, I mean, I now I work withpeople that are that have low
vision and blindness.
I've had clients that literallywalk out their car with a cane,
with a white cane.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
Okay, when I have.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
Okay, and the reason they do that is because, while
maybe in some parts of the daytheir vision doesn't work, um,
they can still drive, for, youknow, for whatever reason either
, the lighting is different, um,oh, that's a good.
You know what I mean.
There's not so much glare, andso.

(27:33):
But when they get out, they'relike, oh well, I need my cane, I
gotta bring it in.
You know, it looks weird, butthat's the reality is.
You know, a lot of times peoplehave a little you don't know
what kind of disabilities peoplehave.
Good point, some of them aremasked, some of them are not,
some of them are just notvisible.
Yeah, and some of them are notvisible until they got out of
the car, bro, you know differentcircumstances different

(27:54):
circumstances, differentsettings.
That you're in differentsettings, but yeah, but the
louisiana center, what it doesis it tries to one, teaches
people under sleep shades.
So, like you, take a blindfold,basically you put it on whether
you can see or you can't okay,and you learn to do everything
you need to do as a blind personfor the rest of your life, as

(28:15):
if you had no vision.
The goal is, let's say you dohave vision, okay, okay.
Well, now it doesn't matter,because you can do it as a blind
, like completely blind, youcould do it with some vision.
Let's say your vision changes,you could do it with some vision
.
Let's say your vision changes.
You could do it completelyblind, you'd have some vision.
Let's say you go camping,there's no fire.

(28:37):
Well, now you're the one that'sgoing to help out because
you're the one that can dothings without having to rely on
vision.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
So that's what they do.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
That's what they do.
And then that training centerand we can talk a little more if
you want, because I have somestories about that.
That training center uh led meto move to nebraska after I
finished it because I was I wasuh dating someone and they got a
job in nebraska and so I wentthere and then I started working
to for one of their centers innebraska.

(29:09):
That kind of did somethingsimilar, but it it was a
state-run center, okay.
And then that job led to memoving to DC, to DC, doing some
policy work in DC and then, oncethat finished, going into a
blindness agency in Virginiawhere I work now.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
In Virginia itself, in Virginia itself.
And what's the name of theagency?

Speaker 1 (29:31):
It's called the Virginia Department for the
Blind and Vision Impaired Gotcha.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
Yeah, and how long have you been with them?
Man, I've been with them fornine years oh wow, yeah, let's
see here there was somethingthat I wanted to.
What was the most valuablething that you learned at the
Louisiana School for the Blind?
Ooh, you learned at the.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
Louisiana school for the blind.
Ooh man, I did not expect that,yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
I did Listen.
We went over a lot, but I toldyou there was going to be a few.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
The thing I learned was that I needed to have um, oh
, what's the word I want to lookfor?
Take your time Self.
Hmm, I needed to have moredirection to be a self-starter.

(30:24):
So one of the before I decidedto go to that training center.
I had checked out othertraining centers and one of the
reasons I wanted to go to thatone is because, as a city kid, I
never learned how to do thingswith my hands.

(30:45):
Ah, right, you know.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yeah, sure, because there was a guy for that.
There's always a guy for that.
Yeah, there's a guy for that.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
There's a guy for that.
Call a guy for that, call theguy, call the super, call
whoever.
So yeah, I could play streetfighter and super, you know, and
mario brothers, but you know,and then, um, and then I would
hear these, you know, women fromdown south talking about what
you do today.
Oh, I just paved my drivewayand I'm like what'd you do today
?
And I'm like I just I'm justsitting here, but so so I didn't

(31:21):
know how to, how to do thosethings.
And one of the one of the thingsthat you have to do at the
training center is they had awoodshop and the point of it
wasn't to't to train youvocationally for that woodshop.
You're not going to come outand be a carpenter.
I mean, some people, I'm sure,wanted to, yeah right, but the
point of it was because theypush you to the limit.

(31:42):
The point is, if you couldhandle a bandsaw as a blind
person safely and independently,then you will understand that a
lot of the issues you face arereally just society or a lack of
resources.

(32:03):
It's not because you're blind.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
That's a great dude, that's, that's awesome.
Uh, and now, or you know,connection and I got all my
fingers.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
Yeah, yeah, right, yeah.
So I did it.
But one of the one of theprojects that they had was they
would make, like some peoplewould make, a grandfather clock.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Oh my god and I don't mean like a crappy grandfather.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
I mean like german parts inside the clock, like
they would.
No, I'm a again, I'm a kid fromnew york.
I don't know how to do thesethings right, you know I get
there.
Um, I get to that class.
You know you don't start outmaking a clock, you start out,
of course, doing these stupidblocks which you call, and a
rudimentary yeah, rudimentary,right, is that what it is?

Speaker 2 (32:49):
rudimentary, okay, not stupid.
Nice with a nice way.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
The nice way, I'm not sure and you know, after you
lose blocks and you put holes inthem, and then you put pegs in
them, and then you make thislittle braille design thing,
uh-huh, um, you know, and you'relike, after a few of those,
then you move on to the otherthings and after that you move
on to using, um, all theequipment, um, and so I'm like

(33:12):
you know again, I'm a city kid,I'm, I'm just, I'm there in
class, it's like eight in themorning.
I'm, oh yeah, yeah, fallingasleep, for sure, you know, and
I have a pair of sleep shades on, so it's not like, oh right, so
I have that on falling asleep.
Every you know people thatprobably had you.
You were, you could probablyfall asleep a little bit more
than most, yeah, and so um, andfinally I get to the point where

(33:35):
I started building my clock andI remember cutting, cutting out
the pieces and all this stuff,and then we had to stop because
the we, they did trips.
They also did like water right,water r rafting, and all these
trips to kind of again make youunderstand that it's not about

(34:01):
being blind, it's about beingproficient and efficient at
things.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Right, putting limitations on yourself.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Don't do that.
And I'm there, right, puttinglimitations on yourself.
Don't don't do that, right?
So, and I'm there and I know,in the back of my head, like in
the back of my mind, I'm like Idon't know if I'm gonna have
time to finish this project, ohshoot, and.
But I'm trying and I'm thereand I show up and I'm there, not
, I'm not falling asleep anymore.
Okay, there, and I'm cuttingthe wood and I'm shaping the
wood, and I'm like, and this guy, this instructor called mr

(34:33):
James, hmm, is it?
I'm gonna, I'm gonna do thevoice because I feel like, yeah,
please do you know, can youtransform into mr James from a
metaphor?
mr James was a very wealthy,independently wealthy former
contractor builder who livedthere, who lost his vision.
And when he lost his vision, hewent to that training center

(34:55):
and then, when he went there, hedecided that he could do more
and he started working there.
Oh, he started working there.
He started working there.
So, mr James, he was like a youknow, he's a guy that doesn't
mess around, right, he's the guythat you show up and he's like
well, it looks like you're late.
Right, there you go, okay, um,and mr james pulls me aside.

(35:16):
He says come here, I'm gonnatalk to you a second.
All right, what's up?
He's like well, I didn't saywhat's up.
I was more respectful than that, of course, yeah he was like,
well, I've been doing some math.
It looks like it's gonna takeyou how many, how many days you
think it's gonna take you to dothis.
So I'm like trying it out.
I'm like, well, right, and Ihave my, my schedule out.
I'm like, well, it's five daysfor this, for this.

(35:39):
And he's like I'll be honestwith you, I don't think you're
gonna finish this project.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
Oh shoot and that's what you were thinking too,
that's what I was saying, that'swhat I knew.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Yeah, in, and that's what you were thinking too.
That's what I was thinking,that's what I knew.
Yeah, in my heart, that's whatI knew, but I didn't want to
face that.
Okay, the reality was that Ididn't take it seriously enough
to finish it, okay.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
Well, you know what?
The fact that you owned up toit and got that, you understood
that.
So that's important.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
I went to the bathroom and I broke down and
started crying, oh man, becauseit was more.
It was something more than justa clock, it was something else.
And at some point I went backand and I told you, I worked in
nebraska and their trainingcenter and I had an opportunity
to build stuff there and I builtmyself a cabinet which I still
have in my apartment there yougo but yeah, that's man, that's
my hardest lesson.
It's like you need.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
If you don't have like you, there's nobody to
blame but yourself yeah, right,yep, man, that's uh, and I think
it's ironic too that it was aclock.
It was a clock, yeah, runningout of time.
Look at that.
Yeah, you know that and andyeah, but gosh, I'm sure you,
I'm sure it's.
It sounds like you learned alot from that place and, um,
it's great to see that placeslike that exist, absolutely, you

(37:01):
know, and that they're outthere for you and uh, and, by
the way before and I'minterrupting- but not at all
maryland, because we're inmaryland right now.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
I don't know.
You know, let people know whereyou are.
Yeah, let me, because we're inMaryland right now.
I don't know.
Let people know where you are.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah, hey, we're in Baltimore, maryland, just so you
know hon.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
Yes, yes, and you guys have a great training
center here too.
Oh cool For blind people, it'scalled VISM.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
How, do you spell that?

Speaker 1 (37:25):
V-I-S-M.
I think Vision, okay, something.
I don't know what it is, butyou're here, you guys are here.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
You have one of those here.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
You have one in Virginia, nice, that's called
VRCBBI.
Just look for blindnesstraining centers, if you know,
should anyone ever need thatstuff, nice, but you do have one
that's local.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
Cool.
Good to know.
That's great to allow people totap into the resources that are
out there.
I think that's really important, so I'm glad you shed some
light on that.
Tell me a little bit about apart of your profession where
you started working withindividuals and then you went to

(38:12):
organizations.
Give me a little bit about yourprofessional background.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
So I work with individuals Basically.
I'll give you what it lookslike on a day-to-day so I might
get a referral for someone.
I get a report report, amedical report, you know.
It says this person hasglaucoma or, excuse me, um

(38:39):
they're.
You know, they lost theirvision, diabetic, retinopathy,
whatever so I look at the lastword you just said there
diabetic retinopathy oh wow, sothat's when you're, when you're
diabetic and then your retinastarts basically getting damaged
because your diabetes oh, wow,didn't know that existed.

(38:59):
Listen, diabetes is a mofo.
You got to be careful with thatstuff because blindness,
deafness, all that stuff you youknow you could live with, um,
but diabetes eats you up inside,wow.
So you got diabetes and youdon't take care of it.
You can lose your vision, youcan lose your toe, you can lose

(39:21):
a bunch of other things.
Wow, gotcha, but yeah, okay, Ilost my place.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
No, it's okay.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
I always try to mention that to people like
you're very, very important.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
I think let's let's make sure that we um shine some
light on the fact that, um, youknow you want to take care of
yourself, take care of your bodyand, you know, go to the
doctors regularly, get yourselfchecked out.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
Eat healthy, eat healthy.
We're talking about thatearlier yeah.
Yeah, in the ride here For sureEat healthy.
Yeah, so it all ties in.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
It does.
It all ties in, and I think thepoint that we were making,
though, was how yourprofessional career working with
individuals.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
Ah, that's right, it wasn't diabetes, but glad we
went there.
We did yeah there we do, yeah.
So so I'm working withindividuals, um, and, and
basically I, you know, I seesomeone, I have a little bit of
an interview conversation on thephone, okay.
Then I do an assessment or two,um, and the assessment is not

(40:22):
necessarily because when you dothis for a while, you kind of
have a feeling of what peopleneed and where things are going
okay, but the assessment is togather data so that if, if I'm
showing you something, I'm notshowing you something that you
don't care about.
I'm showing you something thatyou've identified that you need

(40:43):
help with.
You know you got kids and andyou need to find a job and you
need to learn how to.
You know what do you do withyour wardrobe now.
How do you match colors?
You used to be a job and youneed to learn how to.
You know what do you do withyour wardrobe now.
How do you match colors?
You used to be a lawyer and yougot a bunch of ties and now
your ties don't match any ofyour suits.
You don't know what matcheswhat.
There's a little bit ofstrategy for that.
So I'm not there to give you astrategy.

(41:04):
I'm there to help you figureout a strategy, gotcha.
So you take that and now yousay oh, rather, I say I don't, I
don't want to just affect onelevel, working with people on
one level.
How can I affect people on morethan one level?

Speaker 2 (41:23):
so if I move like level, of like a building, like
you know, like who's on thatlevel?

Speaker 1 (41:28):
like who's on the level?
So imagine different people.
So I'm like well, I think if Iwork with organizations, I can
affect people at differentlevels.
I can affect management.
You're right, I could affectpeople's interpersonal and
intrapersonal relationships.
That's a level I could go above.
Let's say the organization isworking now with the government

(41:50):
or something.
Now I'm affecting that federallevel.
You know that going, you knowjust expand as far as you can,
yeah and so.
I'm like, okay, I think I wantto work with systems and do the
same thing with systems, notjust with individuals.
Okay, and so I shifted.
Like more than two years ago 20, 2023, I started that program

(42:11):
Nice.
What was the program itself?
It's called OrganizationalDevelopment and Knowledge
Management, so it's ODKM atGeorge Mason University.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
Oh cool, george Mason , all right, shout out to the
GMs out there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, nice, nice,yeah, let's see here Talk a
little bit about the nationalfederation.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
Okay for the blind, yeah what type of information do
you?
I know because that when we had,we had a bunch of conversations
before this and that did comeup a a lot and I think we should
highlight yeah so, so that is,um, it's called a consumer
organization, it's a non-profitthat basically does everything
from advocate for people'srights with low vision and

(42:59):
blindness, okay, so let's say ablind mom has a baby.
A nurse comes into the the room, says you're a blind mother,
you can't take care of your baby, and now the, the baby gets
taken away.
Oh, no, okay.
So now who do you go to in acase like that?
You can go to a lawyer, or youcan also go to one of these
organizations, okay, and there'stwo in the country American

(43:20):
Council for the Blind andNational Federation for the
Blind.
Okay, and they help.
That's what they do.
That's what they're there to do.
Maybe put you in touch withlawyers, or maybe it's just try
to help your blind kid getbraille resources in the
classroom, okay, or maybe it'steaching stems, stem, uh, and

(43:41):
science, and to blind teenagersso that they can you know when
they go into the job market theyhave some stem type of stem
background, or they get inspired, uh, yeah, okay, so, um, that
that organization does thosethings.
Um, and how I came into contactwith them was through a karate

(44:04):
class.
Yeah, so there was a book byone of the disciples of the
gentleman who came up withKayakushin Karate.
Kayakushin Karate is kind oflike a really hard style where

(44:29):
they do everything except punchyou in the face.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
All right, everything but face punch, but punch you
in the face.
All right, everything but punchyou in the face.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
Yeah, all right, all right, okay, so maybe hang with
that.
So the student, the student ofthat gentleman got sent to the
united states to push forwardthat style of karate.
There's, I think, in the 60s or70s.
And he got here and he says,man, americans don't want to get
punched in the face.
So what if we restructure andmake a sort of a safer version

(44:57):
of this where you still, youknow, have hard punches and hard
kicks and um and a still abrutal style, but now you're
kind of style now you, yeah, nowyou're focusing, maybe you
don't fight people as a whitebelt, maybe you wait until
you're like a green belt orsomething to fight.
Yeah, gotcha, and so.
But then he, you know somebodyin that organization thought

(45:19):
like what else can we do?
And they started teaching blindpeople in New York karate,
their karate style, okay.
And I read this book and I readthat and because I didn't want
anything to do with blindness atthat point in my life, I just
put it aside and I was likewhatever the book is interesting
, but this blindness stuff,whatever Kind of gave me the
shivers.
But then one day I was like man, I really want to do karate,

(45:44):
and so I did and I did.
I found that organization, foundthe karate school, started
taking classes and one of thepeople there told me that
there's nothing more beautiful,there's no sound more beautiful
than a bunch of blind peoplewith canes and the canes hitting
the floor.
He said it sounds likeraindrops.

(46:06):
Oh, shoot, all those blindpeople at those national
conventions that we had talkedabout, because those
organizations have nationalconventions.
And I I was like, oh, wow,maybe I should join one of these
organizations.
But it wasn't the raindropsthat made me join?
No, it wasn't, it wasn't.
It was seeing two hot girlsthat were blind.

(46:28):
I was like, oh, you were like,remember when I said earlier
it's like bitch, you're blind?
She wasn't a bitch, she's areally nice.
No, of course, of course, butbut she was that, that girl, she
was yeah, I saw her and I sawher friend and I was like, yeah,
no, I'm going there yeah, right, that away, that away, okay, um

(46:49):
, and how?

Speaker 2 (46:50):
so there were.
There were many reasons.
Let's just say there were manyreasons why you were involved in
this and, yes, what's the nameof the?
The?

Speaker 1 (46:59):
convention that you, oh, it's just called national
federation of the blind.
Uh, national convention, okaynational convention when is?
The next one.
The next one is is in July andit's in New Orleans.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
Okay, oh, okay.
So, dude, you need to do adouble up, you need to hit that
up and then go see the homiesdown at the school Right in New
Orleans.
Yeah, dude, you'd be running.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it'll be fun.
Luckily, I have a job because Iwork with blind people.
Well, they don't pay me to gothere.
They do pay me while I'm thereand it's kind of for me, like
every year, it's kind of like arefreshing, um, very refreshing
to see blind people, because theway that I see blind people now

(47:44):
not internally, but, like youknow, I'm working with folks
that are just starting out, okay, folks that are in a state of
emergency.
Really, you know they wantthese services.
They either lost vision or theylost their job or whatever.
But when you go to these, whenI go to these conventions, I'm
also meeting those people.

(48:05):
But I'm also meeting mothersand fathers and grandparents and
people that work for thefederal government.
Well, maybe not right now, um,you know, I'm meeting everyone
scientists, I'm meetingeverybody, people who are doing
not good and people who aredoing great, and so that it's a,
it's a reset for me, nice, andit inspires me to go out into

(48:28):
the community and continueworking.
Oh, I love that.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
That's awesome to hear, man, hey, there's
something that I really want toget into.
I know when I first startedtalking to you, you gave me some
details of just throughout yourlife itself, and I would love
to kind of just like step inyour shoes for one day, like,

(48:53):
let's just say like we're goingto go, we're getting up, we're
going to, you know your dailyroutine, and then you know,
let's say, we're taking like thebus, you know to like a
restaurant, okay, and then likelet's add something fun, you
know after the restaurant thatyou can think of, but like how

(49:16):
would your yeah, how would yougo by your day?

Speaker 1 (49:19):
okay.
So the first thing, when youmentioned the bus, what came up
to me is something that one ofthe instructors at that
Louisiana Center told me.
What cuz I saw them at?
Hey man, I'm from New York City, I take the subway.
I know how to take the subway,I don't know how to take the bus
he goes.
What's so hard about taking thebus?
I'm like, well, you step on,you step off.

(49:40):
Oh, okay, right, that's okayeasy.
Is that easy?
Is that?
I mean, there are sometechniques you know, um, like
what I would do today might havebeen different than what I did
when.
Today might have been differentthan what I did when I was
first first learning thesethings, just because of apps and
things like that.
So what I would do is I wouldprobably want to know the route
of the bus, so I probably go ongoogle maps, um, and just make

(50:03):
sure that I'm taking the rightbus, you know what bus, how many
stops, um, because you knowwhen you take public
transportation.
I don't, I don't know how manyof you guys do, but sometimes
those announcements don't workand I can't read the
announcements you know, so Ihave to, you know, either track
on my own, or one other thing islike ask the bus driver hey,

(50:26):
can you tell me when I get tosuch and such?
Okay, and they'll do that.
So I would do that.
Um, that's how I would get onthe bus.
And get off the bus, uh, tofind a restaurant.
Um, I would like to know wherethe bus leaves me.
So, for example, lets you off,lets me off, but like, am I on

(50:48):
the block that has the evennumbers or the odd numbers?
Right, because I need to findthe place.
The other thing I would need todo is take a look at the
address.
So, like, if I think of anaddress, 400 south something
street, um, I know that it's onthe fourth 400 block of

(51:15):
something street.
That's how firemen get to yourlocations, that's how they look
at the oh really yeah, that'swhat they do.
Oh, wow, like you know, if I, ifI say 325, it means it's on the
300th block Yep, and then 25,you count up the addresses Yep,

(51:37):
of course, and that's how theydo it.
So, blind folks who have thattraining.
That's how we get around.
All right, so I get off the bus.
I found my place Walking intothe restaurant, so I got to
mention this.
Had this been 10 years ago?
15 years ago, and people werestill using change, a lot of

(51:59):
change, and dollar bills.
Not everybody uses their iphoneor they use some other type of
payment.
Right, like, not a lot ofplaces do cash, but one of the
things I used to do is listenfor that cash register.
Oh, wow, that's interestingbecause that's going to tell me.
Maybe, if it's a fast foodplace, like where you know where
the?
Um, where do I go up, where doI queue up?

(52:21):
Yep for the line now I'mlistening for beeps and you know
other other cues, um, so thatlet's say I it's a restaurant,
okay, I might if it's a tight,you know, the place is really
tight, um I might take you meantight, like, nice, like, like
it's good.

(52:42):
No, no, I mean tight, tight likeliterally like remember new
york city, kid right.
So like tightly, like there's38 tables in a four-foot space
you're banging in this andbanging a ball in a china, so so
there I might be like okay, can, uh, can I take your elbow?
Is that okay?
If I take your arm, okay, um,and sometimes I'll just yeah,

(53:03):
I'll, I just do that on my own.
Uh, the other thing is like thebathroom.
So the bathroom is interestingbecause the first thing is I sit
down, I start listening.
Where do I hear a door close?
Because that's probably wherethe bathroom is or where do I
hear the kitchen?
Because the bathroom isprobably near the water pipes.
Okay, good thought right, um,and you know, geolocate, yeah,

(53:26):
so a lot of places like that, um, but basically I I think the
day revolves around knowing whenI can use assistance, and
knowing and, for the most mostpart, just being able to, to
maneuver myself in myenvironment.

(53:47):
Um, and it does take.
And, as I'll disclose something, most blind people or people
with disabilities do not want tothink of their existence as
more difficult.
What do you mean?
Like I don't want to think thatit's going to be harder for me
to do something.
That's going to be harder foryou, yeah, but the reality is,

(54:10):
yes, I'm gonna, I'm gonna haveto put more effort into doing
something.
Of course, some people look atthat like, oh, you're so
inspiring yeah, you know so hard, yeah, and I'm like yeah, sure,
sure.
And then at the end you know,and I also think, like you know,
what that also means your assis lazy late.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
Oh shoot right, right , because how much more effort,
you know how much more effort amI doing?

Speaker 1 (54:38):
you know to do these things and where are you?
How are you doing so?
And I only take that stancewhen because some people do look
down and you know, whensomebody does look down, I'm
kind of like okay.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
But let me ask you this what are this is a side
note here um what are what'slike one or two of the
misconceptions that people haveof of blind people?

Speaker 1 (55:01):
um, you know that saying one of them is like the
blind leading the blind, right.
Well, if the line blind don'tlead the blind, who's going to
lead?
The blind side of people arenot going to leave the blind,
the side of person.
Help me mic drop.
Just drop the mic right nowmight help me get to us.

(55:22):
You know, I don't know, mightpoint something out, but you're
not gonna lead.
You know what I mean yeah it'snot leadership got you um.
That's one misconception.
The other misconception is thatyou're always in a constant
need of needing assistance right, yeah, you just mentioned that
a second ago right, um, and youknow, because I there's a lot of

(55:44):
times that I'm just like.
I remember one time I was likestanding in dc northwest, uh-huh
, just standing on connecticutavenue, uh, for whatever reason,
I think I was waiting for uber,so I'm just like standing like
head down listening to my, my,uh, my iphone.
Okay, like, literally like not,I don't think, and maybe they

(56:05):
thought I was, but I don't thinkI was looking like I needed
help.
I was just kind of close ish tothe corner, yeah, and just
minding my own business.
Someone's like sir, may I helpyou across the street?
I'm like, oh, thank you, but no, it ends.
You know, someone else, like asecond later, would like maybe

(56:26):
grab my arm and try to push mepull me across the street and
it's like got you.
You know, please ask.
That's a misconception for somemisconception.
You don't know where I want togo.
You don't know that I need thehelp.
Um, you just ask ask.
So even if you try, if you thinkyou're being helpful, you might
not be so, first at least justask, just ask yeah, I mean, and

(56:50):
at the same, you know, sayingthat with the understanding that
not all low vision or blindpeople, people disability,
disabilities have the same levelof independence or want the
same level of independence.
And so I I don't want to pushpeople away from asking, but the

(57:11):
important part is ask like ask,because you know the way that
we work is.
We see somebody and we think weput ourselves in their position
in this place.
I was like, well, yeah, if Iwere, if I couldn't see, I would
want help crossing the street,but you probably wouldn't want
somebody dragging you across thestreet if you couldn't see for

(57:31):
sure, right, but yeah, but anask is always good and ask is
always welcome mmm, you knowwhat let's, let's get, let's see
.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
I want to ask you what does beauty mean to you?

Speaker 1 (57:53):
Hmm, I think that depends on what we're talking
about.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
Yeah yeah, for sure, but like just by the broad sense
, what?
What does it make you think of,kind of think of the most
perfect thing you can imagine.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
Okay, the most perfect colors, the most perfect
texture, perfection think ofthat.
I'm manifesting it in my mindright now now you carry that and
you hit a wall and there's alittle chip comes off.

(58:33):
That's beauty, mmm.
Not that the chip came off, butthat, that little imperfection
within the perfect oh man, darndude, that's deep right there.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
Good shit, what about ?
Uh, this is something I.
I asked you know one or two ofmy friends if they had any
questions for you oh yeah and uh, this was from alex here.
Um, he wanted to know.
What other senses do you feel,either like heightened um or or

(59:16):
lowered um, do you think thatyou have to use?
You know, since you are blind,do any of your other senses have
to go into overdrive orunderdrive?

Speaker 1 (59:28):
So I have a few answers, yeah.
One of them is that it's amisconception that you have
heightened senses.
When you lose one sense, yeah,sorry, hit the mic again.
Yeah, you're good, I'm not onesense.
Yeah, sorry, hit the mic again.
What happens is, let's say, youlearn to drive a car

(59:54):
defensively, right, like youknow the the police training,
where they're running.
You know, and I don't, I justdrive a car.
You don't have a superpower,because you learned that.
What it is is that you have askill, and let's say you are a

(01:00:16):
cop and you do that every dayand I'm just a regular citizen
and I do it once in my life.
Your skill at doing that isgoing to be a lot greater than
mine.
So that's the same thing thathappens with a disability.
It's like one sense doesn'tenhance, of course, but you use
it more and so you become morefamiliar with it and that sense

(01:00:42):
is now looks like to the otherpeople, like you have a
superpower, but it's not asuperpower.
Because my hearing it's not agood way to describe it no, like
, my hearing is the same as yourhearing, of course.
It's just that you don't haveto hear for traffic when you're
walking halfway down the block.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
It's like when are you listening, Right?
Not like how are you?

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
listening, not like how you are not, not not
necessarily exactly right,exactly and you know what, this
is a perfect time to segue, Ithink.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
Um, well, actually you were describing that, though
I think there was a few more,where, you see, there was a few
more things that you wanted totie in.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
Yeah, so um, I forget alex's question, because the
first one was uh, the.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
The question that he has was uh, as far as your
senses, okay, yeah are.
Are any of them um, um,heightened?
But I think there was.
Oh, was there anything elsethat you wanted to add to that?

Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
yeah, yes.
So the other part of that isand again I have to point it out
hit the mic, keep hitting themic.
It's okay.
Um, some senses do getoverwhelmed.
So, for example, I know plentyof people blind people who, in

(01:01:57):
crowded, crowded places, crowdedareas, can get over, like Like
yesterday.
You saw where I live.
I live right across the streetfrom the baseball field and it
was really crowded.
Now, usually that block isreally there's not that many
people.
So I get out of my Uber and I'mused to listening to where the

(01:02:19):
entrance is.
It sounds a little bitdifferent if I'm walking toward
the entrance of my building.
Um, there's a carpet on thefloor, there's like glass, um
doors, um, so it sounds.
And then there's like a space,um, there's like planters around
it, okay, so it soundsdifferent than if I'm just

(01:02:41):
walking along the wall.
But I couldn't hear that.
So it took me like 30 secondsmore to find the door to the
building and so those senses,like my hearing at that point,
was a little overwhelmed becauseI'm listening to everybody
walking around.
There's a bunch of traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
Oh yeah, I'm thinking about all the other things that
are going on around you as well.
Yeah, and toning some of thoseout, yes, oh, I never thought
about that actually.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
So like the worst thing.
Um, if I go into the metro andthere's a guy playing the sax,
like that sounds great but it'spreventing me to hear where the
tracks are, where the people arelevels to this.
There's levels to this right, soum, so, so yeah, and then tying

(01:03:33):
that to where I said, you know,it is a little harder, it is to
to sort of live with adisability.
It is because, as a sightedperson, or as a person who's
able-bodied, you don't think, oh, that guy, I mean it might, it
might annoy you, yeah, but youdon't think, oh man, I could
fall into the tracks becausethat dude is playing a beautiful

(01:03:55):
song, you know sometimes thebeauty there's beauty in the
madness.
Sometimes you to just stop andlisten to the song.
Stop and listen to the song.

Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
Right, yeah, maybe that gives you the opportunity
to take some patience.
And you know what?
Speaking of patience, there's asmall segment here that I want
to kind of transfer into realquick.
Let's see here.
I got a few questions for you.
Okay, this is kind of a rapidfire All right, let's see here.
Um, I got a few questions foryou.

(01:04:25):
Okay, this is kind of a rapidfire all right, let's do it.
Let's do it, put a bunch ofseconds on the clock here yeah
yeah, um, okay, you ready name asong that always gets you
pumped up oh, um it's a songthat always gets me.

Speaker 1 (01:04:42):
I don I don't have a song necessarily that gets me
pumped up.
It gets me.
There's a song from back in theday, from the Mortal Kombat
soundtrack the first one.
Not that one, no, but that onedoes get me pumped up, but it's
not that one.
It's one by, I think, orbital.
Okay, it's called, I think,halcyon.
On and On and On Sing it.

(01:05:05):
Let me hear you sing.
If I sing it, it's stupid.
It's just like a reverb,reversed voice going.

Speaker 2 (01:05:15):
And then a bass line.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
And then, and it goes on for like 11 minutes.
Okay, but I just that's it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
That's the beautiful.
Yeah, okay, next question.
Next question.
All right, we're going rapidfire with these.
Okay, rapid fire.
Talk about a time you helpedsomeone in need.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
Oh, I think it's a small act that you've done
recently um shit come on, Ithought I was gonna do this
rapid fire.
Um.
Oh, someone in need, uh,someone in need um come on, when
do you?

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
when's the last time you helped somebody?

Speaker 1 (01:05:54):
I think every day.
That's the problem, oh I think,yeah, I'm like okay, uh, okay,
uh, help someone.
Help someone, you can pass youcan open the door.

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
There you go.
Okay, come on, I saw, I saw youall right.
If you could have any questionanswered, what would it be?
What?
Any question.
What is this?
What is all this?
What is life all?
This oh my god, I don't evenknow if it's life, just if it's
life rapid fire rapid fire.

(01:06:24):
What is life?
What is all this?
Okay, if you could combine twoanimals, which would they be?

Speaker 1 (01:06:32):
oh, a cow and an elephant, an elephant a
caliphate, a caliphate nice,love it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:45):
Big ass ribeye yeah oh, dude, that's, that's dinner
for days.
Have you ever eaten somethingweird just to see how it tastes?
Yes yes, okay right, it doesn'teven ask you what it was yeah,
let's not even yep all right.
Would you ever want a jobtesting flavors of food?
Yes, yes, there you go.

(01:07:05):
Nice, have you ever gotten lost?

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
Where were you and what happened?
Yes, so have I ever gotten lost?
Yes, where was I?
I don't remember, you don't?

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
No, I don't remember.
That's why you were lost, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
I usually don't get lost, know?
No, that's why you were lost.
Yeah, I don't.
Yeah, I usually don't get lost.
And what happened?
Well, clearly, I found my way.
Yeah, um, you're here now I'mhere right, yeah, nice man.

Speaker 2 (01:07:33):
Well, you know, I think we all get lost every now
and then, but I it just dependson we're gonna find our way back
.
You know, um?
And I have one last segment forus sure, sure okay um, I have,
uh, somebody on the phone linehere.
Okay, who could it be?
And this actually is theyounger you, okay, okay.

(01:07:57):
So I want you to have aconversation with yourself and
basically tell your old selfanything that you want.

Speaker 1 (01:08:07):
Um so my old self or younger self to your younger
self yep, your younger self.

Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
Yep, uh, maybe like 20 years ago, okay, 25 something
like that 20 years ago it's thephone for you all right yep,
there you go for you.

Speaker 1 (01:08:30):
All right, yep, there you go.
Okay, yeah, it's got, yep, hey,a younger self.
Um, what are you doing rightnow?
Or should I say yo, yo, yo,what up, what up, what's going
on?
Yo, man, um, because I knowthat's how you talk back then.
Um, so a few things.
Number one you're gonna be okay, everything's gonna be okay,
life is okay, um.
Number two it's gonna take awhile for you to figure out what

(01:08:54):
you want to do, and that isokay.
Take your time, not too muchtime, but you know, make good
choices.
Number three yes, you are goingto have girlfriends, and it's
okay and that's also going to beall right, but it's going to

(01:09:16):
take a while for you to figureout your relationships and what
patterns there are in thoserelationships.
Um, and let me see there'sanything else.
Oh, yeah, you, you're gonna keepmaking music.
There's a little bit of timethere where you don't make music
because it's not accessible toyou, um, but once it is, it's

(01:09:37):
gonna be amazing.
But once it is, it's going tobe amazing.
It gets crazy, dude, like youcould have, like a group of
singers in your back pocket.
Don't ask me how, just wait forthe technology and then,

(01:09:58):
finally, keep exercising, keepdoing the things you do, be fit,
be healthy, keep eating welland don be healthy.
Keep eating well and don't beso hard on yourself.
Understand that it's okay toreceive and it is okay to love

(01:10:31):
without an expectation, or to beloved without an expectation.
Okay, what do you got to say?
All right, well, you keep doingwhat you're doing there.
Don't tell me, I'm pretty sureit's nevermind.
All right, I'll talk to youlater.

Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
Here we go.
Awesome, that was good stuff,the good stuff, dude.
Well, alex man, I just want tothank you.
You know, it's been really coolto get to know you and get to
really just kind of pick yourbrain, and I appreciate your
patience with me.

Speaker 1 (01:11:10):
Yeah, it was a fun process.
Yeah, it was a nice process.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:15):
Yeah, I agree, I agree it was good times and I
look forward to continuingtalking to you, and you never
know, you know we might be ableto, you know, have you on here
again at some point, cause I dofeel like we we got through a
lot of stuff, but I genuinelyfeel like we could, you know, do

(01:11:37):
a whole nother hour or two.
So we'll have to, we'll have tofeel that out and hopefully
we'll be able to make it happento us.
So we'll have to.
We'll have to feel that out andhopefully we'll be able to make
it happen.
Do you have any uh last minute?
Um you know, words or umintentions or anything that you
want to leave um the listenerswith?

Speaker 1 (01:11:55):
yeah, so I I think what I was saying to my younger
self um, the first thing is,it's going to be okay, you're
going to be okay, you can handleit, you can take it.
Uh.
The second thing is just be agood person to other people.

(01:12:17):
There's nothing that's going togive you more than giving of
yourself for others, being partof community.
However, you can do that and Ithink that's it.
Oh yeah, no, no, there's onemore.
Food is life and life is foodman.

(01:12:41):
Yes, dude, eat, well, eat withpeople you know share that's it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:48):
Well, you know what dude let's hit them with?
The food is life, life is food.
Out here, okay, listen, hashtag.
Okay for my, my man, alex here,and uh, I'm super grateful to
have you here and I just want tothank everybody else for
joining us and until the nextepisode.

(01:13:09):
Yeah, man, yep, we're turningthe page.
All right, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
Peace out Later.
Bye.