Texting

I've just had an amazing experience. I was having dinner and this man in a motorized wheelchair came in. He has some sort of degenerative muscle disease, rather like Stephen Hawkings, and cannot speak well. He was over by my table, sort of shouting, or grunting, trying to get the attention of the workers. Unfortunately for him, the only staff member that knows what to do with him was in the back. He wheeled around for a bit and then ran into my seat backwards. The stupid thing is, I was scared. No idea why, he couldn't possibly have hurt me, or stolen my purse. He could have run over my foot I suppose, but really, he posed not threat what so ever. And yet, he scared me. A worker walked by and sort of glanced at us before moving on and he shouted some more. Finally the manager came out and pulled a board from the back of his chair and placed it in front of him. She explained to the 2 foreign workers standing there, that the man was hungry and wanted to order but needed a cardboard tablet to spell out what he wanted. They patiently took his order as he tapped on each symbol for coffee, white, sugar, fish fillet (yes, I was in Mc Donald's, but that's not the point). It was an excruiating process to listen to as I texted my friend. And then I realized that this is the best possible countries for that man to be living in. The Irish text more than any nation in Europe. They have more paitence than anyone for that sort of communication. He was doing exactly what I was, a process which I absolutely abhor, only out of necessity. After his order was taken and he was seated, a girl of maybe 20, 21 walked by with her boyfriend. Not really notable until she was standing beside me talking with the man, introducing her boyfriend to her friend Edward. She pulled the cardboard tablet out and read out what he was saying and they were happily chatting away about Edward's CD that she had her boyfriend listen to. I've seen a lot of infirmed (that's not the right word) in Ireland. A blind girl rides my bus everyday. Lots of people with limps, missing limbs, deformed something or other. And we always look away. They scare us. Why? If they see us looking, will they try to talk to us? And that will be hard. We don't like difficult conversations. We like banter to be easy. And here were 2 Irish, 2 English-as-a-second-language Foreigners and a severely disabled man talking up a storm as I left. It was a very humbling dinner.