The blind leading the Blind

This semester I am working on a new style of internship in the sense that I am not working with one single organization. Rather, I am trying to work with a consortium of practitioners in the greater Portland area, to be able to further understand the capacity of the field and how it can be applied in a variety of sub-fields. As such I am hoping that my blogs will be experiences from different opportunities and that I can develop a great awareness of how one can help in a variety of ways, given my area of studies. This came about after talking with one of my professors, who practices in a variety of different arenas, and who has a group of friends doing the same thing, who all get together and talk about it once a month or so. She pitched the idea to the group, and a few of them decided to accept me as a quasi-intern for the group. I am very grateful for her and being willing to talk with her friends in practice.

The first opportunity is with an organization that helps blind business men and women in the state of Oregon. There has been a lot of prep in the front end of trying to understand the organization and how it works, its strengths and its weaknesses. There is a meeting with them in which all of these findings of the organization are discussed, which went great, and caused reflection (resulting in the title of this post). However, before getting to that I just want to say that this experience has been great so far, and has been similar to what I would actually like to do when I graduate. I would love to go into an organization, study its culture and the needs that it has, and then work to coordinate the implementation of those needs into the culture, to create a new and strengthened organizational culture. This would mix my passion for culture, business and conflict resolution into one amazing job... here is to wishing and hoping!!

Okay, back to the lesson and observation of the day's meeting with the blind. First off, this was a very entertaining and fun group of people, even while talking about serious matters. They poked fun at each other for not being able to read or see, and had a number of jokes about being blind. It was fascinating to me, because the group was just like every other cultural group, when it is together. They are comfortable and understanding of the life of each other, including the good times and hardships. They joke from a point of love and understanding. The tease from a place of equality and compassion. This was a unique glimpse into a culture and world that I have had seldom opportunity to interact with. Especially in the setting of working together with them, to strengthen their organization. A glimpse into a world that is seldom seen, due to the minority of the population in which we live can help to provide grounding and understanding to those that live adjacent to that world, and what an experience and gift it can be.

As I sat in the room with blind leaders (organizational leaders and people who own and operate businesses, who are blind), I thought to myself, whoever uses the phrase "The blind leading the blind", in a demeaning or belittling way, has clearly never spent a few hours with the blind.