leading the blind

Today I assisted a blind person getting up on our platform to speak and then back down again. I realized that even though I can see and I have two college degrees I'm not a very good guide. I'm not even as good as a seeing eye dog, although I realize that such a dog has more training.

Going up on the platform wasn't so bad, but part of my responsibility was to place his braille sermon notes on the music stand. We got up there and I set the notes down, only to realize I had put them down sideways. I was glad I had taken note of what the bumps on the top of the page looked like so I could get them right side up, but I wasn't totally sure I had them right.

We use a music stand for the speaker and I noticed that when he touched the stand it was twisting slightly to the right. Apparently he didn't realize that because I noticed that he was lining up at a right angle to the music stand which meant he was shifting too. He kept shifting more and more. I began to worry about that so I started to laugh out loud at his wry humor. I was hoping he would remember that I started out at about 1:00 to him and maybe he would correct his stance. He did correct it a little but he definitely didn't continue in his rotation.

The worst part was when he came down off the platform, he stopped in the middle of the main aisle. I thought he was going to stand there facing the crowd with me during the invitation and then go to his seat. I was wrong. He turned around so he would be ready to sit down when the invitation song was over, but there was no seat behind him. So I told him that his chair was several steps to his left.

I doubt that anyone else was aware of all these little details and he did an absolutely amazing job of preaching. However, I will never apply for the position of guiding the blind. I think I'd get someone hurt. His sermon talked about the problem of the blind leading the blind. I'd say the sighted leading the blind isn't so great either.