BLIND LOVE FROM NEW ORLEANS

Blind Love
By
Debbie Lindsey
What the world needs now is love sweet love.
Mike Joullian once told me that people suffer from skin hunger. Not from lack of sex or food, my friend explained, but from the lack of affection, of touch. Sometimes a person just needs a hug. This simple exercise does a body good and has been known to prevent hardening of the heart.
As with most holidays certain concerns or emotions are tapped into. At Halloween we are allowed to scream like a girl while confronting the boogey man from our childhood nightmares. During Thanksgiving we rear our self-absorbed heads long enough to see the homeless and hungry and, if only for a day, we serve food and dignity--then give nervous thanks for our lucky station in life. And at Christmas, amid the frivolous shopping and its resulting debt, we do actually feel and act upon the need to truly give. Charities will prosper. And that elderly neighbor with no family will be invited to share a day with those next door. The mere sharing of “Merry Christmas” to strangers at the bus stop can brighten a day.
There are gestures and attitudes associated with the various holidays that could easily be practiced daily – the screaming like a girl part may not be for everyone, but you get the picture. We don’t have to wait until Mother’s Day to make time for her or only honor our veterans on the eleventh of November. Or how about Valentine’s Day and the promise of love? This is an easy no fuss cost-free holiday to one can replicate daily.
Valentine’s Day is not just for sweethearts it’s for everyone, in fact, I suggest it be for every thing that we love. I love Miller High Life and intend to show my love by ordering one from my bartender, whom I love, at the bar I love tonight – just to get the ball rolling. Now, I realize that the word love has been cast about rather freely for years and that there are folks who take umbrage at how the word has become so commonplace, so casual. So, of course, love for a mother trumps an ice-cold beer or the bartender serving it but hey, in a world as tough as this one why not find a little love in everything.
I know too many folks who are not on the receiving end of love and there are millions more like them across the world. The guy in the wheel chair is avoided because his brilliant mind and his speech are camouflaged by cerebral palsy. That sullen twenty-something girl seems so haughty and self-contained…until you take the time and ask how are you today? Then she smiles, and you see an entirely different person.
I had backed away from writing this Valentine and love thing because it just felt too contrived, too damn corny. So I decided after my foot hit a puddle of piddle sending me skidding and slipping into a near perfect Dick Van Dyke pratfall that the dangers of dog pee on hardwood floors would make a better story than one about love.
But I simply could not get What the World Needs Now love fest out of my head. And I realized, as I starting taking my own advice -- saying and smiling salutations to passersby, that it does work. People do respond, for the most part, to little tokens of warmth. But also two other things happened today to make me continue in this saccharine sweet vein – Rosie (the urinator) and Mike (the skin hunger prophet).
There is a little someone that I love, she is the matriarch of my herd of fleabags, many of you know her as Rosie the Wonder Dog. She’s a tough old bird but today she had to undergo surgery. Her illness was leading towards total blindness with serious health risks along the way. The operation would end the pain; the blindness would be complete. We were prepared for the loss of sight (little sunglasses, hat with veil, white tipped cane and tin cup for begging donations) -- but not prepared to loose her.
Today she lived up the her Wonder Dog name and despite her age came through with flying colors, colors she will never see again. But Rosie still has more love in store for her. Every article, every trainer or veterinarian I reference, insist on the importance of a loving touch and an encouraging voice to guide a dog through its new world of darkness. Of course, Rosie the food whore likes the other aspect of her new training – extra treats. I am sure she’s already planned to fake fall down the steps every time unless incentive treats are provided, like forever. She’s got me trained.
While awaiting the results, my hometown friend, Mike, just happened to be in town and dropped by to visit. I gave him a hug that I hoped would let him know our much I have needed his friendship of forty years -- and today I really needed it and held on to him a bit longer. Sometimes ya just gotta feel the love.
There are famines throughout this world but the hunger of the soul, of one’s spirit is one famine that is all prevailing. It can affect even the otherwise well fed. You never know when someone is at their wits end, just trying to stay ahead of the mortgage or holding on to a job that may vanish tomorrow. How many do we know that have struggled for the past four years to rebuild only to discover they have to walk away from their home due to Chinese drywall – with only the cold comfort of a lingering class action suit.
A kind word, smile or touch will not restore one’s life, but it might give meaning to it. A little compassion might make the struggles worthwhile. People do die from skin hunger; their spirit can just wither and give up. And we all have the ability offer a little sustenance – a little reprieve from the darkness.