I've rarely met a miserable, self-pitying blind person. Rosemary Mahoney More Quotes by Rosemary Mahoney More Quotes From Rosemary Mahoney Writing is not a genteel profession. It's quite nasty and tough and kind of dirty. Rosemary Mahoney nasty writing dirty The heart of their [Walsingham Witnesses] religion seemed to lie in disproving the religion of others. Rosemary Mahoney witness heart lying I think most memoirs, though they purport to be about this particular time or this person you met, are really about the effect that person or time had on you. Rosemary Mahoney memoir mets thinking Sight is a slick and overbearing autocrat, trumpeting its prodigal knowledge and perceptions so forcefully that it drowns out the other, subtler senses. Rosemary Mahoney slick perception sight I was a good student, sort of funny and athletic. I had friends. Rosemary Mahoney good-students athletic students I fear that my mind would starve and that I might find myself in danger if I had no visual information, that it's chiefly the light, the shapes, the spaces, the colors that I see that compel me to keep moving forward in life and that keep me safe. Rosemary Mahoney color light moving I, for one, find writing excruciating. Some mornings, as I'm on my way to my desk, my hands actually tremble with fear. The fear, of course, is that I'll sit down at the desk and discover that what I've written is claptrap. Fear inevitably leads to procrastination. Rosemary Mahoney procrastination writing morning My mother had seven children in seven years. No twins. She also had a three-legged beagle who was compelled to bite strangers, a freakishly big double-pawed tomcat who regularly left dead rabbits on the front doorstep, and 70 white mice that one or another of us had smuggled home from my father's research laboratory. Rosemary Mahoney mother home father children Most of us who have healthy eyesight are extremely attached to our vision, often without being conscious that we are. We depend heavily on our eyes, and yet we rarely give them a second thought. I, at least, am this way. The physical world is almost hyper-vivid to me. Rosemary Mahoney eyes me vision world When sighted people cover their eyes or find themselves in a dark place, this is something that's very terrifying for us. And so in general, we assume that this is what blindness means. But of course, it isn't. For people who were born blind or who go blind at a very young age, that's not at all what blindness means. Rosemary Mahoney eyes age dark people Nobody's perfect, and to try to pretend you're perfect is an exhausting fool's errand. Rosemary Mahoney nobody you fool perfect One of the many misconceptions about the blind is that they have greater hearing, sense of smell and sense of touch than sighted people. This is not strictly true. Their blindness simply forces them to recognize gifts they always had but had heretofore largely ignored. Rosemary Mahoney true smell blind people A majority of my blind students at the International Institute for Social Entrepreneurs in Trivandrum, India, a branch of Braille Without Borders, came from the developing world: Madagascar, Colombia, Tibet, Liberia, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal and India. Rosemary Mahoney india blind students world I am like a security camera ever on the watch. The furtive quality of vision feels to me like an incredibly valuable weapon. Everything I see gets transformed into a private sketch or painting in my mind, stored away for future reference, future evidence, future ammunition. Rosemary Mahoney i-am me future quality It's rare that I'm able to get to my desk in the morning without stopping halfway there, turning around, and going in the opposite direction because of a pressing need to straighten all the pictures on the walls, floss my teeth a second time, and make certain that there really are 100 postage stamps in the roll of stamps I bought yesterday. Rosemary Mahoney pictures yesterday time morning One of the most persistent misconceptions about blindness is that it is a curse from God for misdeeds perpetrated in a past life, which cloaks the blind person in spiritual darkness and makes him not just dangerous, but evil. Rosemary Mahoney darkness god life past Aversion toward the blind exists for the same reason that most prejudices exist: lack of knowledge. Ignorance is a powerful generator of fear. And fear slides easily into aggression and contempt. Rosemary Mahoney blind ignorance fear knowledge I wanted Lillian Hellman to be perfect because I wasn't perfect myself. I really wanted a mentor. Rosemary Mahoney because myself mentor perfect As a teen-ager I was constantly trying to please people, which I guess is true of all adolescents. Rosemary Mahoney guess true trying people My mother had faith in me, had more faith in me than I had in myself, and knowing that she did made me try to find faith. She believed in trying things. Rosemary Mahoney myself me faith mother
