Live to Love, Love to Live

On planes I see a great opportunity to get to know some one next to me. Now, I feel out the situation to see if the person wants to sleep, read a book, listen to music, or just not want to be bothered. I do not like to be a nuisance, but more of a friend.

Well, since we do take so many flights I like to utilize this time to come to know others. My first story of Living to Love was our trip last year to San Francisco to play San Jose before Barcelona. Walking onto the plane I realized I was going to sit next to a blind man. Well, this was quite the experience should I say.

His name was Robert Powers and lived in an assisted living house hold. He did some things on the side in order to make the little money that he had. Robert was a very alert man. I was curious to ask him questions about being blind as I have never had a conversation with a blind man before. With the first question I said, after opening introductions, "Is one of your senses heightened?"

Robert said yes he can hear and feel movement even at the slightest. He could tell me when the wheels were coming off the runway for take-off, when the rudders were moving, and when we were turning even the smallest degree. It was actually pretty amazing. I then asked him, "How about with people, can he see what people are really like on the inside?"

He said oh yes that is the biggest one. He can tell if someone is timid, genuine, scared, nervous, etc... just by either a hand shake or the tone of their voice. He can tell who someone really is beneath all those clothes, flesh, and fake-ness. I asked him if it discouraged him to see others for who they really are.

He said No. At first it makes you very mad because of how people treat others just because the color of their skin, they talk different, or from another country. He said I found myself often with those that were mistreated or looked down upon. Not only because I was one of them, but because I could not "see" what others saw. He grew up in Minnesota and joined a black church singing in the choir. Robert is a white man by the way. He told me of how sad he grew from being mad at others to being sad for them. He was sad that they looked and saw others through their physical eyes so much. He wished for others to not look so much with their eyes, but with their heart. He said, " Most people are good Jed, they just see too much"...I started laughing because that had to have been the greatest quote I have ever heard.

The last question I had for him was if he wished he could see again?

Robert replied, "No I do not wish, it would be fun to see God's creation of nature and humans with my physical eyes, but I see so much already I do not know what I would do with eyes" Talk about a wise man, right?

Robert and I had so much fun for 4 hours. I let him listen to my ipod and he especially loved a song by T-pain called "Buy you a drank". I laughed so hard because he asked me to turn it on, I counted, at least 9 times. He started singing it by the end of the flight. He probably had 3 beers the whole flight and got a little tipsy. He had all one's in his wallet, because obviously he could not get scammed. Adam Moffat sat in front of us and myself and Adam helped Robert walk down to baggage claim to meet his brother with whom he was staying with for a week. I laughed so much and learned so much from a man sitting next to me on a plane.