Michael Gerber
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John Lennon without his glasses

Lennon peers down uncertainly at a 45.

So we’ve all heard how John Lennon without his glasses moved around in the land of Monet—how his famous tough-looking stage persona was actually him peering nearsightedly into the crowd, hoping he’d see the incoming bottle or fist just in time to avoid it—but this photograph made me smile. Beatle John blinks down at that thing like he’s 85. “Is this bloody ‘Watch Your Step’?”

A slight disability like that (perhaps the disability is being too vain to wear your specs!) often pushes people into their imagination. From there, it’s a short step to full-blown creative pursuits. And bad vision isn’t all bad; I still remember the day I was walking down the street and saw a beautiful little bird leaning against the gutter, almost as if he were sitting in a chair watching the titanic cars whiz by. Then I looked again, and it was a wadded-up napkin.

(I preferred it when it was a bird.)

Anybody have any favorite Blind John stories, put ’em in the comments.