His Vest Said, Blind Runner

A blind man ran past me today. He wore a cotton vest over his plain-colored T shirt – Blind Runner, the vest said in florescent yellow. He carried a white cane, not tapping it on the ground but holding it point-downward ahead of him.

The blind man ran past me today - from behind on the winding drive, then disappearing around a bend ahead. A quarter of an hour later he reappeared, passing by me again, still running his own confident path. He ran past men and women, walking and talking their way along, he as confident as they. He passed children too on bicycles, as easily as I might, if I ran as easily as he.

How, I wondered, did he become a blind man who runs? Once he must have been a blind man who did not run. Then, he discovered that people ran, that these people, called runners, wore special shoes and special clothing that they bought somewhere. And that must have appealed to him too. But did his friends and family say to him, “Blind people can’t run. How can you run?”

Deep inside him he must have carried on the debate: “Blind people don’t run; but I could run. I want to run. But can I run?” Maybe he went to an athletic goods store and said, “I want to run. I want running shoes and running clothes.” Did the salespeople say to him, “You are blind. Blind people can’t run.” Or did they just think it, while staring at the blind man who wanted to run? Did they sell him the running shoes and clothes?

When he finally said to himself, “I will run!” what did he do next?

What was he thinking when he put on his running shoes and running clothes for the first time? Was the debate still going on inside him: “Blind people don’t run; but I could run, and I have the shoes and the clothes. So now I will run.”

“I will consider how God works and labors for me in all creatures upon the face of the earth, that is, he conducts himself as one who labors…I will consider all blessing and gifts as descended from above. Thus, my limited power comes from the supreme and infinite power above…” (The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola, paragraphs 236, 237.)

God was surely acting in the blind man who ran past me today. Perhaps the man knew God’s action explicitly, or perhaps the man felt only what he thought was his own desire and determination. Nonetheless, God acted, God conducted himself as one who labors, and the blind man ran.

October 9, 2006: The Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts