Why "not not"

I think I should start by explaining the title of this blog.

I was spending my second summer working in a camp in New Jersey when a fellow counselor admitted something to me. She and I had been neighbors the year before, and she had assumed, because I never made eye contact with her, that I thought she was ugly. I did not think she was ugly. In fact, I had often thought about how not ugly she was. But I understand what happened.

Thanks to a small blind spot, right in the middle of both eyes, I tend to look just to the right of people (or, from their perspective, the left) to see their faces at all. Even then, I can't see faces too well until I'm about eight or nine inches away. That can be uncomfortably close in American culture, unless you're dating.

So, it began to dawn on me that my beautiful counselor colleague probably wasn't the only one. Plenty of people mistake my lack of eye contact for rudeness, obliviousness, disgust, or just plain quirk. I probably possess all of those attributes, but not as often as it might appear. That's why I decided to take action.

The next summer, when we went around introducing ourselves, I proclaimed:

"My name is Jeremy, I'm from New York City, I teach theater, and I'm not blind, but I'm not not blind."

Since then, that's how I've introduced myself. People get the idea pretty quickly, and it also leads to questions. For instance:

• How did I get this way?
• Have I always been like this?
• Can I read? What can I see?
• What does it look like?
• Does being blind give you super-powers?

I'll be answering some of those in this blog (hint: if I gave away my super powers on the web, my enemies would come after me), but I'll also have some commentary about life and stuff that comes from my not-nearly-20/20 perspective.

Also, if you have any vision issues (or if you know someone who does), I would love to have other people post stuff here. Even if no one else reads this thing, I will. I'm fascinated by what I have to say (ahem).

And on we blindly stumble.