エッセイ 道路の黄色いブロック
Have you ever seen yellow blocks on walking path along the street? Recently, I was surprised to find a letter on a newspaper strongly criticizing these blocks. The letter was written by a lady who walks everyday on the street. Actually, she says, “These yellow blocks are bothering me. It is not good looking and sometimes I almost stumble and fell down. I wonder if there is anyone that can feel comfortable walking on these blocks. When I walk, I always look around to find anyone who can hardly walk because of his or her troubled eyes. I have never seen such a person as long as I walk in the morning. I hope courageous someone will attend in his city assembly, raise his hand, and state the opinion that since there is no one who make use of this ugly yellow blocks in his city, so let’s remove this from our street.
When I read this, I was shocked to find out someone thinking this way. In fact, I myself sometimes use cane when walking because I often have pain. Of course I try not to be seen so often by people around me, and also, I feel ashamed to be seen. But I wondered in order to make clear my condition, I should walk around and show my cane because some people will be aware that there is an old man there and he needs some cane or yellow blocks just in case.
One of the difficult problems in our daily life is that; people feel ashamed when they noticed that they are handicapped. We do not like to be found out that we have some trouble walking, seeing, and troubles.
Several years ago, I was suffering from facial neuralgia and part of my face did not move at all. When I went into a cafeteria, I did not want to be seen eating, simply because I could not shut my mouth and drink coffee or something even though I took care of it. Fortunately, it took me only three months to get better and now, I do not have clear trouble on my face. But if that continues, I cannot endure the shame. So I can understand some handicapped people’s feelings. They try to hide their problems and hard to be seen carefully from other people. That’s why even some blind people will feel this way. Therefore, they do not like to be seen and pretend as if their trouble is not so serious.
My opinion is that; The lady’s comment is rather cold-hearted. We should pay much attention to the people who are handicapped and have trouble living.