Time is Limited For Us All… But Some Are More Aware of It Than Others.
Here’s a classic Would You Rather: “Would you rather be blind your whole life or go blind gradually?” For Lindsey Blankenship (Siegel), she didn’t get to choose, but she has a rare eye disease that is slowly making her blind. As a teenager, she skied regularly; as a 41-year old mom, she has to look carefully at her feet to make sure she doesn’t walk into her 4-year old son. When your peripheral vision drops to 3 inches in either direction and you’re effectively night blind, it’s almost like your skiing days were a dream.
OK, so here’s another one: “If you were going blind gradually, would you rather spend your seeing days going to the Seven Wonders, or watching youth baseball and building a website for people with other ailments to tell their story?” For Lindsey, she chose the latter and happily so. Between mom-ing and soaking up her son’s baseball games, Lindsey has chosen to create ThrivewithDisability.com, a storytelling platform that connects the differently-abled and shares the unvarnished stories of their journeys with the world.
One last one: “If you were gradually going blind, would it better to live with high hopes or low expectations?” Powerfully, Lindsey has chosen both because she believes it’s the only way to live her ‘normal’ life. Her challenge to us is do the same.
You can find the transcript for this episode here. Find transcripts for all episodes here.
Question of the Day
What adversity in your life could you step back from, reframe, and change the way you move forward, incorporating gratitude and joy?
What can you see that’s worth looking a little closer at next time?
Share your story in the comments below
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The Interesting Lives of Normal People is a regular conversation with someone interesting. Our job is to ask good questions with a belief that on the other side of being asked good questions, everyone has a great story we can learn from.