P-C,

I just tweeted that. I saw it on io9.

The youtuber who did that has serious skills - narratively and visually.

Thanks, P-Cow!

Judi Dench is going blind.

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Judi Dench is going blind.

Yeah, my dad suffered macular deterioration before he died. It was very depressing for him, as he was already having trouble getting around walking and he couldn't play golf with his buddies, or watch TV even.

My mother's macular degeneration reached the point where she couldn't get her driver's license renewed and has continued to get worse. She can read, a little, with the help of a machine that enlarges everything, but it's a hassle.

God, if you're listening, I'd rather be deaf than blind. If I get a choice. Which I don't. I know which direction my cowardice runs.

Helen Keller was asked more than once whether she'd rather have her sight or her hearing back, if she were granted a magic wish or a one-sided medical miracle, and she always said she'd rather hear. What little she remembered of sight from her very early childhood was delicious, but what she yearned for more than anything else was music and the voices of the people she loved.

I'd much, much rather keep all my senses, but... yeah. When I try to imagine never seeing Hec's or Matilda's or Emmett's or my parents' faces again it hurts, but it's imagining never hearing their voices again (or never hearing "Feed The Birds" or "Cast Your Fate To The Wind" or "I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow" or even "My Baby Does The Hanky-Panky" again) that makes me really die inside.

Unlike Xander, I DO NOT like the quiet. Or, I only like the quiet when it's got something to be quiet against.

While I wouldn't be lining up for an utter lack of verbal communication, I'm pretty fond of silence in limited doses and could probably deal with it full-time. Blindness, however, would remove the lion's share of what I enjoy about life. I'd rather lose limbs, frankly.

My grandfather went completely blind from macular degeneration. He got books on tape from a federal program for the blind, but he found frustratingly little that was interesting to him - he was very intellectual, and so not interested in, like, Jackie Collins or Tom Clancy. My grandmother used to read him the New England Journal of Medicine cover to cover. He also had to give up playing the piano, because although he was pretty good, he didn't play by ear or feel at all - he had to read the music, and once he couldn't read the music, he couldn't play.

While I love listening to music and would hate to lose that, blindness would severely impede my ability to communicate online, which, when I stop to think about it, is probably my primary method of communication. I communicate with more people online in a typical day than I talk to people in real life. Not to mention the ability to just pick up something and read it. Reading, you guys. I mean, I know there are Braille books and audiobooks, but...comics! Maybe I am undervaluing my sense of hearing, but I think I'd pick deafness over blindness any day.