I find people who pretend to be blind highly unnerving.

A few days ago, on my bus ride home, there was a man on the bus who had very large, dark sunglasses on and a white cane (one of those blind people's canes that folds up when they're not using it) at the front of the bus. Naturally, I assumed he was blind. But then I started noticing his behavior, like how he would look at the woman next to him (who was obviously his significant other) when she spoke to him, or how he would know exactly where to put his hand on her leg. It became clear to me in a very short amount of time that he was clearly not blind.

At first I thought, gosh, he is really good at not seeing. He seems to know exactly where everything is. I admired his ability to move throughout the world without sight, assuming, of course, that he had been blind from birth and was just very adept, before I realized that he was looking out of the window and then commenting on the things passing to his girlfriend. Suddenly I was shocked. What on earth is this guy playing at? He's putting on the show of having a serious handicap without even really trying to convince anyone it's true? Maybe he thought we would just innocently continue to assume he was blind without noticing any of his peculiar habits.

Seriously though. What in the world.

And this reminded me of another time we were in Squirrel Hill at one of the major intersections waiting for the walk sign. A blind girl was walking across the street, but she was laughing with her buddies and kind of turning her head strangely. I said to Brad, "There's something funny about that blind girl... like she's not blind." Which she wasn't. I saw her a few minutes later walking down the street now with one of her other friends pretending to be blind. This was excusable to me, because these kids were obviously college-aged and participating in some sort of experiment. But that guy on the bus really freaked me out. I find myself utterly disturbed by his strange pretense.

Sometimes an actual blind person rides my bus in the mornings. A couple in fact. They have seeing-eye dogs, and once they were both on the bus at the same time. It was a really cute interaction.

Lady #1: "Is that Sue?"

Lady #2: "It sure is! How're you doing Edna?"

Lady #1: "Oh pretty good. Say, don't you have a new dog now?"

Lady #2: "Yep, his name is Forbes. My last one was named Grant." (These are street names in Pittsburgh.)

Lady #1: "How's he working out for you? I had my last one for 8 years. It's so hard to train a new dog."

Lady #2: "Oh I hear you Edna! It's difficult to remember to be patient. I can't get upset with him if he doesn't know where the bank is; it's not his fault. He's just learning."

They're both pretty upbeat people. Their dogs are really sweet too, they get under the seat and sit there nicely riding along. I admire these women for being positive and active and going places and having a life. Not that I don't think all blind people can't or won't. But it's easy to fall into a trap where you feel sorry for yourself all the time. Maybe that's what bothers me about this fake blind guy. Does he just want special treatment or something? Did he really just want a seat on the bus that badly? It's confusing to me. I'm confused.