From dusk till dawn. It’s always darkest before the dawn, but what’s wrong with dusk? Where’s the beauty in it?

It’s December and nearly are we arriving at the shortest, longest, darkest day/night of the year.. On our International Day of Persons With Disabilities 2024 episode, we are discussing disability within a larger framework of discussion, expanding into age and the changes it brings, including experience with illness and disabilities as we all, inevitably, get older.

Through a sudden scare with the sight in his right eye, Frank Bruni goes ahead, in his book, to explore a shifting perspective on themes of vulnerability, ageing, and the perspectives that come from a life turned into life lessons well earned. This week on Outlook we discuss New York Times columnist Frank Bruni’s medical memoir The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found which came out a few years back.

We examine themes from the book such as light and dark from the images held in the book’s title referring to beauty found in the dusk and the influence of language and using such words as “affliction” and the negative weight such a word holds for the imagination.

We need more thoughtfully written books like Frank’s to normalise disability as a part of all our lives. Co-host Kerry stumbled upon this one and, upon reading, wanted to review it on the show, to explore how those who gain valuable lived experience of disability suddenly, or later in life, can still write about these things from a thoughtful and careful place with sensitivity and wisdom.

Find the book available in various formats here:

https://www.amazon.ca/Beauty-Dusk-Vision-Lost-Found/dp/1982108576