ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author attempts to depict his life with his dog, Smokie, which he have characterized as a relationship based on the idea of the "alone-together". He draws a distinction between living with blindness and living in blindness. This distinction, like the one between humans and animals, was also born of our relationship with it. The conception of blindness as an externally motivated condition which imposes negative effects upon a person results in a life with it. Living with blindness requires a separation of an individual from his body. Living with and overcoming blindness is manifest in a variety of ways in our society. Living in blindness poses a contrasting interpretation of the relation between nature and society by preserving the distinction between the two without separating them. "Living with blindness" is a human response to nature as a distinct entity and as a bearer of gifts.
