Describing a sunset to a blind man

 

I used to ride a train to work from midtown to downtown, generally seated next to a congenial old chap named Max.  After several trips, I realized he was blind.  For one thing, he never looked me in the eyes, and the people he greeted as they got on the train, he never bother to look at either yet called them each by name.

I always sat beside him because we had wonderful conversations –many of his quite colorful- about the happenings of the day before, the way we raised our children, and so forth.  Also, he was a big one for political conversation.  Though he never said, I felt sure that he was on the advisory board of the Governor or some top agent.  But I never asked.

One day I got off from work a bit late and figured I had missed my traveling companion.  However, I ran into him in the drinking car. 

“Oh, what a miserable day I’ve had to today,” he muttered to me.  (I guess he recognized my cologne to know I was standing next to him.)

“No kidding, me too.  You see I just got off work myself.”

About that time, the lady who sold roses on the trains for the wives who would be waiting on the arrival of their spouses, sold Max a flower.  While he couldn’t see the flowers, he smelled each and every one before picking out a gardenia.  He explained that to his wife a gardenia meant that he was late but had, in fact, been at work.

When we took out drinks back to our seats, I couldn’t help but notice what a beautiful sunset was in our line of vision.  When I remarked on the subject, he said, “Look, schmuck,” you know I can’t see anything.”

I’d gotten myself in to it; I figured I better get myself out.

“Max, why do you always pick the same drink at the bar, how can you tell a gardenia from a pink rose, how do you know voices and not faces, how can you tell a hug from indifference?  And how well aware are you of my cologne?  You can’t see any of these things?

Max thought a moment, “Because these things all bring me pleasure.”

“Well, if you combine your greatest pleasures with all the colors you can imagine the rose lady has, what do you think you might see?”

Max thought a little longer and finally said, “God.”