December 9, 2016 CITY OF BLINDING LIGHTS

It really is pitch black out at 5:00 p.m. Only know this fact because I went out for my first night run and it felt like midnight. It was very quiet--only a few cars on the road, some college kids scurrying to the cafeteria and the REAL DIEHARDS. The only saving grace for me was the street lights. Luckily, we are blessed with many street lights so I felt relatively safe out there. It's hard to run at night though--afraid to get hit by a car because vision is limited.   I also like to listen to music when I'm alone  so that's two senses compromised--can't hear or see well--it's dark AND I can't wear my glasses-- so I feel like I'm at the mercy of cars, coyotes, sidewalk cracks and the boogie man. Even though I know the Boogie isn't real, shadows lurk at night and set the mind in motion--coyotes are also known to walk down the middle of the street  so I'm hoping that I actually scare them away--and sidewalk cracks are the bane of my existence, hence, why I run in the road even at night. Not too smart I know, but it's either fall and break my neck or risk getting hit by a car. Anyways, while I was running and contemplating how dark it was out, I thought about the blind-- because without the street lights I literally would have been blind. It must be hard to go blind, especially, if you have had the sense of sight your entire life. This is the premise of Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago's  novel  Blindness.

In this timeless story, an epidemic has hit an unknown city in an unknown country. The epidemic is called "white blindness."  In an attempt to quarantine the sick,  authorities take the first 8 victims to an empty mental hospital. These 8 people become the main characters in the story. They do not have names other than-the doctor, his wife, the boy etc. as they represent everyman.  After spending a considerable amount of time together, they forge an unlikely  family unit. The hospital is eventually overwhelmed with victims of white blindness and chaos ensues. Rationed food is stolen, women are raped, filth and dead bodies take over the hallways--it is truly survival of the fittest. The 8 original people are lucky though--one of them is not really blind but couldn't bare to leave her spouse. This is the only person in the hospital of hundreds  not affected by white blindness.  Find out what happens next as an inept government tries to keep order in the face of disaster when you read this great--actually frightening story. Saramago makes us think about the nature of disaster, the human condition and begs the question--How would you handle a disaster??? This is a beautifully written book of about 350 pages or about a 6 miles run that you will never forget.   By the way, I am in the middle of the sequel--Seeing--and it is equally disturbing.