Blind Man

I had a blast at the XA First Year Retreat last night and today.

A small crowd gathered at three XA girls' apartment Friday night. We had a delicious meal of spaghetti and garlic bread with Amy Geiger's (an amazing girl) amazing cookies and rice krispies treats afterward (this version was actually made of Fruity Pebbles....superb). Then Josh Harvey (a stinkin' awesome dude) led us in worship. Then Amy spoke and then led us in a discussion about friendship relationships. Then we played Taboo. It was Josh Harvey and Josh Clayton (me) as leaders, so it was Harvey v. Clayton teams. Sounds like a boxing match. But anyway I'm so proud of my team, they won, they did, the beautiful people! Then we played Twister which I was horrible at and then we played Mafia (which I might have done better at had I understood the rules when I played), and then we watched Shrek 2 and then talked forever about random junk and then by 4-something a.m. we'd all crashed and fallen asleep.

At 9 a.m. Mr. Zach Mitchell (another stinkin' awesome dude...oh heck they were all awesome), came in and sang us from our bedspreads on the living room floor. Krispy Kreme donuts, then we had a discussion about romantic relationships (God's perspective). Broke up into groups, all that great stuff, pretty fun(ny). Then we went out to Highland Park for what I thought was the best part. After we ate and climbed around in a huge oak tree, we played this game, which rocked my face off, which I shall try to explain..........

Everyone worked together as one team in this game. The objective was to get everybody piled into two vehicles somewhere else in the park and drive to an objective point. There were a few "problems." First of all, the car keys were hidden in a secret location and had to be found by us.

The other problem was a huge one. Every player had a "handicap." I shall name a few: we had people who couldn't use their arms, couldn't use legs, couldn't hear, couldn't talk, etc. We even had a parapleigic and a girl with Attention Deficit Disorder. Now, let's think about this. We all as a group had to struggle across the park with our various handicaps and get into the vehicles. We have people who can't walk. That's right. They have to be CARRIED.

Furthermore, only 2 people in the whole group could talk. Furthermore, each of us started off alone in a different location.

I was the blind man. I had a handkerchief tied across my eyes. Yeah, let the hilarity begin.

When we started, I was on the other side of a ditch, so I kind of kicked my legs out in front of m me to discover the ditch was right in front of me, and I sure as heck wasn't going to try and jump across it blind, not seeing where it was. And I couldn't talk, so I started clapping and waving my hands, till I heard running footsteps. I reached my hands out and some girl (whom I couldn't see and later learned was Margaret) grabbed my hand and so I ran after her, literally, "blindly."

For those of you who've never played a game like this, it takes a whole new level of trust to RUN behind someone who leads you on, with twists and turns, not seeing at all where you're going.

Another thing, I still have no clue where the heck I was the whole time. I felt hills and stuff, but obviously I couldn't see and no not where I stumbled during the game.

Eventually Margaret, who was mute and couldn't talk, pushed me to the ground, and pushed my hands against this girl (who I learned was Katie). I couldn't understand at all what she was doing, until my hands brushed up against a hanky tied around Katie's leg. So I started untieing it. Margaret then slaps my hand. "What the heck?" Oh, I'm supposed to CARRY Katie, because the handy represents the fact she can't WALK. So I timidly thrust my hands out to pick up Katie and start struggling forward, as someone guides me, while I carry Katie.

Now, I want you to try and picture this in your head, this last scene I described. A mute person is trying to communicate to a blind person that the blind person needs to carry a crippled girl. A blind man then carries a this crippled girl, but the blind man has to be led on by the mute girl as he carries the cripple.

I had to stop frequently. I lost a lot of energy going slowly, not knowing where the HECK I was going carrying Katie. Eventually (!) we met with other members of the group, one of whom had the use of his limbs and carried Katie. I sat down to rest. Before long, some other girl pushes me to my feet (I'm starting to like all this female attention...) and pushes me forward, we cross some more space till I'm pushed to the ground and brush against someone, whom I learn is Brittany. The catch here is Brit's the parapleigic, so she can't do a bloody thing. Here's where I wish I'd been squatting when I went to the weightroom recently. I had to deadlift her and again stumble blindly with her giving directions. I felt like such a weakling. I kept losing grips on her and had to collapse, with falling down BAM right on top of me. Then I got up again to that several times, probably covering a shamefully small amount of distance. But hey, it really sucks, carrying somebody when you're BLIND. Eventually (shamefully I learned later it was a couple girls alternating) someone else carried Brit the remainder of the way, as I was led about by the hand again. We got to the vehicles. Apparently, some other players had found the keys somewhere else. We had to fit like 8 people into a sedan. I managed to find the door and hop in, smushed between the door and someone else. Two people were in the trunk. We reached our destiation, got out the cars, and I kid you not, when I took the blinder off my eyes, the sun was so bright it hurt.

Then we met at an oak tree and Adam talked about relatioship with God, we closed with some personal prayer time.

Anyway, the whole thing rocked, but none more than being a blind man. It was unbelievable, peeps. It was totally cool.