Growing Up Fisher is Like Growing up Scheidies Episode 3: A Blind Date
Episode 3 of Growing Up Fisher was like a family dating show. It became more of who would commit the least number of dating blunders. Although Mel probably pulled the biggest blunder he was the one that came out on top. You will have to watch the episode to get the full scoop on the fiasco but I will at least give you my favorite parts and a life truth about the blind community that you can take away with from the show. Here's the link to watch Episode 3
My Favorites:
Mel Catches the Cabbie Red Handed: One thing you don't want to do is try to cheat a blind man and that's what the cabbie tried to do to Mel. He scored some points with the ladies as he caught the cabbie trying to charge him extra because he couldn't see the meter. I'm always amazed that people in the sighted community that try to pull these stunts think that we haven't figured out ways of knowing how much things should cost or what type of bills we have in our wallet. I mean, come on, it doesn't take a genius to figure out if a cabbie is playing you when you take a route many times and then all of a sudden its like $5 extra. Mel unveiled the ultimate cabbie lie detector test by counting the clicks on the meter and multiplying in his head by the rate per click. Even better, he tipped him a buck so the cabbie couldn't say that blind people are cheap. Hilarious :)
Mel Shoots Down a Prize at the Carnival: We all love carnival games especially those that involve shooting and Mel is no different. While at the carnival with Henry, Mel non-shalauntly walks up to the carnival worker and says, "Hey can you watch my guide dog while I shoot?" The carnival worker probably thought he had no other choice so he took Elvis, while muttering to himself, "Well, I've never seen this before." Mel then took the gun and with Henry's assistance in lining it up at the target, he shoots and hits it right on. He goes down the line hitting the first nine targets with the assistance of Henry lining up the target. At the tenth and final target Mel tells Henry, "Let me try this one on my own." They panned over to the carnival worker as he had a very puzzled look on his face. Mel takes the gun and attempts to line up the target. His alignment was a little off and drifted a little high and he shot the stuffed animal prize right in the head. Just like game hunting, he was able to take home his kill. This was classic and hilarious!
LIFE TRUTH:
Let Me Try: In this episode, Mel is in the laundry rom at his condo with Henry and is fiddling around trying to adjust the settings on the machine. Henry is watching and can visibly tell that Mel is struggling but he also knows his dad and that this is not the time to step in and help. Instead, he lets Mel struggle for a bit until the good looking next door neighbor notices and asks if he needs help. Knowing that he probably wouldn't get it right this time and that he may score some points with the neighbor, Mel lets her help and uses it as an opportunity to flirt with her. This was pretty slick if you ask me.
Those that know the blind/VI community well will be able to agree with me that we can be a little stubborn at times when it comes to letting people help us right off the bat. I'm pretty sure the main reason for this is that we don't want society to think that everything needs to be done for us. Also, if we let people help us with everything than we will never learn how to do it ourselves. We understand that this means we will fail miserably many times but through these failures is how we will succeed. I'm the first one to say that I have hit things, eaten something I thought was something totally different, wandered around the grocery store putting everything to my face and the list goes on and on, but I never would be able to do all of these things independently until I learned through my failures first.
Typically, in the early stages of acceptance of our visual loss is where you will see the most stubbornness. Many times we haven't fully accepted our situation and don't want others to know and therefore don't tell anyone. As we accept our blindness, we still try to do everything without help at first but learn to know when we will need it and when we won't. Sometimes it is more efficient to ask for help at first so from there on out we won't need it but sometimes it is better for us to learn through our failures. Mel learned that when he is with his son he should try to do it on his own but when a good looking female offers to help it is better to let her help (LOL).