As I pondered the beauty along the roadway, my mind was occupied by an upcoming tour I am to conduct in Metamora for a group of blind high school students. I’ve conducted tours of the town before, describing the history and stories as the tour group walked along with me down the canal. But I’ve often felt that my spoken words for such a tour are often just footnotes to the interesting actual appearance of the main street of the village, with its large variety of architecture and age, the way the canal looks with the ducks swimming along, etc., which led me to wonder how I could do justice to the description of the surroundings when speaking to those who have never had the blessing of sight. How can I envelope this high school student group in the magic of Metamora through mere words?
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| Metamora Redbud Tree in bloom (in background) |
So as I continued driving past the gorgeous redbud/springtime fresh green color contrasts along the highway, I experimented with trying to describe the appearance of my current surroundings in some fashion that would have meaning to a blind person to help them enjoy their current surroundings.
It’s easy enough to leave color and light/dark out of the words, though that is where the real beauty is for those of us who can see. I understand that the other senses of blind folks usually are heightened over those of us who take vision for granted. So I’ll assume my tour group is probably far more sensitive to taste, smell, touch and hearing than I am. (Of course, my dear wife would interject that everybody’s sense of hearing is better than mine.)
So, as to a non-visual description of the beauty of the redbuds and their contrast to the gentle greens of springtime: From a taste perspective: I love the taste of properly cooked prime rib. With just a hint of peppery crust, the beef flavor of the super tender, warm juicy beef cooked to a perfect medium rare is just to die for. That might equate to the appearance of the redbud trees. Then pair that prime rib taste with the taste of piece of creamy, cool, Muenster cheese. The cheese flavor is very delicate, smooth and subtle. That might equate to the appearance of the light greenery surrounding the redbud trees. Put both on your plate, enjoy a taste of one followed by a taste of the other, and the mingling of flavors, temperatures and textures in one’s mouth might be the taste equivalent to the visual appearance of the gorgeous redbud trees against the fresh springtime growth surrounding us.
As I continued driving, and since I am overweight, I thought I should try to come up with equivalent comparisons with senses other than food. So my mind toyed with the sense of touch: A comparison here might be similar to the feel of running your fingers through a loved one’s fresh clean hair, then letting you fingers drift to smooth skin. (Or one could go back to the previously described taste sensations of the prime rib and muenster cheese- the textural difference in the mouth might be more properly classified as the sense of touch on the tongue.)
The sense of hearing: The redbuds could be the sound of Isaac Stern’s playing of “The Flight of the Bumblebees” (bright, active, exciting) followed immediately by the beautiful sound of an operatic voice singing “Ave Maria”.
I never quite got to the sense of smell, as I was nearing my destination by this time. But it was an interesting experience.
The blind school teacher making the tour arrangements told me to not worry about conducting the tour, just do what I normally do, which I shall. We’ll see how much the students enjoy it.
She also told me the students had been reading the MetamoraIndiana town blog, where I am posting this writing. If so, students, your tour has begun early, as the redbuds will likely be green before you get here- the vivid color is unfortunately very short-term, just as prime rib is not nearly as good once it has been left out on the table overnight.
