Another opportunity, a journey into blindness, by Robert Hein

The transitional stages may be shocking and beneficial, especially when standing between sight and blindness or between blindness and sight. When I realized that I would see after fifteen years of blindness, the shock seemed sufficiently beneficial to start a detailed diary of my reactions, in Braille, then after the pages became clearer by hand. Later, when the weak eyes had gradually and painfully accustomed to the printed page, I began reading books for the blind. There was a kind of compulsion. It was not just enthusiasm for restoring sight. I needed to understand what had happened to me, the loss of sight and its recovery. Perhaps the experiences of others can tell me what was happening. But it was not Homer, or Samson, or Helen Keller, or John Milton who helped me more than anyone else. Rather, it was the modern people who dealt with a complex and sordid world.