Tonight at dinner, my daughter Emily mentioned a short story by Helen Keller that they read in school. In the story, Keller discussed what she would do if she could have the gift of sight for three days. Emily's teacher assigned them an essay in which they are to detail what they would do if they had only three days of sight left. Travel time and other reality-based restrictions are not a factor in this scenario (picture George Jetson-esque travel).
This is Emily's list:
1. Spend one day in Spain so she can see where she born, which is something we hope to do after she graduates from high school.
2. Spend one day with her entire family. (We were glad to make the cut—not a given in the teenage years.)
3. Spend the last day somewhere exotic. New Zealand was mentioned.
Here is Jake's list:
1. Spend one day with his entire family.
2. Get a three-day pass to the Boston Red Sox.
You can see that he's still somewhat math challenged even in 4th grade. We're working on that, but his sister did point out that he'd used up four days when he only has three. That led to some sibling bickering, and the conversation disintegrated from there.
Their debate did get me to thinking about what I'd do with those three days. Losing my eyesight is one of my greatest fears, and it's something I do think quite a lot about. I spend eight hours a day on the computer for work and then another three or four at night working on book stuff. That's a lot of hours, and I remember my grandmother always telling us to sit back from the TV so we didn't ruin our eyes. If I allow myself to imagine what she'd have to say about my love affair with my laptop. . . I guess only time will tell if I've shortened the life span of my eyes by subjecting them to so many hours a day of intense computer time. I have a feeling that if computers do turn out to be the enemy of the eyeball, I'll have a lot of good company at the home for the blind.
Well, anyway, about those three days. . .
Other than drink in the sight of my children so I'd remember every detail, I'd probably spend most of my three days reading everything and anything I could get my hands on. What would you do?
