All Blind

When I joined the Coast Guard, me and others (who weren't joining the best branch of the armed forces, but hey, no one is perfect) had to go through various test that involved everything from duck walks in our underwear to needles in our arm (eh...for those who don't know me too well, I HATE needles, and it is perfectly ok to hate an inanimate object). I know many of you have done physical exams before so you know the basics of it. What I am getting at is that I get into this room with 2 or 3 stands for you to look in and they put a card up and ask what number is in the middle of the card. Some were easy to decipher, others it seemed like all you were looking at was a bunch of colored dots all mashed together in an attempt to confuse you and hurt your eyes. I'm sure you all remember those, they were the ones you thought you saw a number in and yet you weren't quite sure so you just took a guess at it. Well after that and the whole cover one eye and read the bottom row from across the room, I found that I still have 20/20 vision. I'll try to explain what 20/20 means. It means I can see from 20 feet away what a person with normal vision sees from 20 feet away. I remember I have always been blessed with great vision. When I was in elementary school I actually had 20/16 vision (I could see from 16 feet away what a person with normal vision saw from 20 feet away). Just to put it into a little better perspective though, humans are only said to have as good of eye sight as 20/10, but some birds and hawks can have vision as good as 20/2.

Now for many many years I have taken my eyesight very seriously. I find my ability to see normally as a precious gift and I try to do all I can to keep it that way. I'll give you a little example of just how important my eye sight is to me. I was stationed on a boat about 2 years ago and we were doing training for our boarding team members. This particular training involves (as I may have told some of you already) Oleoresin Capsicum, more commonly known as pepper spray. Now for those of you lucky people who have had the wonderful opportunity to take a shot of that to the face, you probably see where I am going with this. For those who have yet to experience this great pleasure, pepper spray of any kind is mainly used to disable a person temporarily so that they can be either subdued or to allow a person an opportunity to get away. It is an inflammatory used to cause immediate (and I mean IMMEDIATE) closure of the eyes, difficulty breathing, runny nose, and coughing. Pending on the strength of the spray, full effects can last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, but the diminishing effects can last for hours after. Just to give you an idea, the European Parliament Scientific and Technological Options Assessment published "An Appraisal of Technologies of Political Control" in 1998 with extensive information about pepper spray and tear gas. They say, "The effects of pepper spray is far more severe, including temporary blindness which lasts from 15-30 minutes, a burning sensation of the skin which lasts 45-60 minutes , upper body spasms which force a person to bend forward and uncontrollable coughing making it difficult to breathe or speak for between 3-15 minutes". Well in the Coast Guard as well as many other forms of law enforcement, this pepper spray is known as a "non-lethal" means of restraining an aggressive person. Now, that you have a basic idea of pepper spray, we can get back to this amazing experience. During this training there is plenty of preparation that foes into making sure it is as safe as it can be (and if you are like me, you will wonder just how safe it is to temporarily blind someone on a pier, with deep sea water all around and no fence to block that person from falling in). So they make sure we knew all the hazards that go into this training so we aren't going into it "blind" (haha). They had me stand about 10 feet away from the guy who is going to spray me, I close my eyes, and then I felt it hit. They were suppose to spray me across my forehead just above my eyes, but since I volunteered to go first, the guy spraying me didn't have a chance to get his aim down and the first spray hit right across my closed eyes and the second one hit it's mark on my forehead. For 15 seconds we have to protect our weapon without drawing it, all while following the "aggressor". After that 15 seconds, we were told to draw our weapon and continue following this person with our eye opened. I was fortunate not to have an immediate reaction to the spray so I made it through the first 15 seconds just fine, then when I drew down on the "aggressor", my eyes started closing. I had to keep my weapon pointed with one hand while the other hand held my eye opened in hopes that I could see him through the numerous tears streaming out of it. I made it through that part as well without feeling the sting (you have to love adrenaline). When they told me I was finished and I began to take off the gun belt, it slammed me like one of those little smart cars being smashed between two speeding semi-trucks. I realized that my eyes were shut and there was nothing I could do to open normally, my nose was running like the winner of the New York City Marathon, and my skin was on fire (I grew up eating spicy foods so it didn't really my mouth or my breathing). I made it to the cooler of water we used to wash our eyes out and our faces off, which helped about as much as eating a habanero pepper would help to get rid of the sting of a mouthful of cayenne pepper. I begin to wash my face and that's when I realize my eyes are completely shut. I could not open them, and I began to have a minor panic attack. I thought that i was blind for good. After a few minutes, the EMT that was there told me to calm my breathing and keep flushing out my eyes, and I realized it was only temporary. Well, all that being said leads into today's topic.

Now, the thought for the day is blindness. A vast majority of Americans are blessed to still have their eyesight. Let's throw out some numbers. According to a CDC study in 2010 that was about 300 million people in the U.S. and 1.3 million of which are legally blind. That's about 0.3% of the United States that don't have their eyesight. There is about 3.4 million Americans that are visually impaired or legally blind. Now, about 10% of all Americans cannot distinguish certain colors from others. Meaning about 33 million people are visually impaired in one way or another. Some of you may be reading this and thinking that this isn't brightening your day at all. You have some sort of vision impairment and are maybe getting a little disheartened. Well, legal blindness isn't really my point in all this. My point in all this is that we are all blind. We need to take the time out of our day to actually open our eyes to the beauty around us. I understand that we all have bad days and that we aren't always in the mood to look on the bright side. I want you to remember this. I have a friend of mine that is legally blind. He seems to find more joy in life than any other person I know. He can see better than any other person I have met. We walk around in the darkness and are meant to find the light. Well let me ask this, how can you look for light in the darkness when you have your eyes closed. Opening your eyes in the darkness is the most important thing you can do. That is what will get you through a rough day. I have had plenty of rough days but I always take joy in the fact that there are those around me who love me and there is always One how is watching out for me. He will always be there for me to talk to. I know He won't respond to me in voice, but how often do we have problems that there aren't really any solutions to but the best solution is to just get it out, He will always be there to listen. If you need someone who will respond immediately then please come talk to me. There is ALWAYS light in the darkness, just keep your eyes opened and you will see it. God bless and until tomorrow have a light day.