Ray and the power of blogs

The family watched Ray last night. Beth and I were watching for the second time. It was Hanna's first viewing. I love everything about that movie. I love Ray Charles' music. (Thank you, mom, for having it in our house growing up.) I love Jamie Foxx's performance.

After the movie, Hanna asks how Ray went blind. I remember hearing that it was glaucoma, but I decided to google it just to be sure. Most links confirmed the glaucoma story. But then I found this blog link: The blinding cause of this... that includes a comment that suggests that, a) childhood glaucoma is very rare, and b) the movie depicts symptoms that are more consistent with trachoma. Since the movie was done with Ray Charles' blessing, I'm inclined to think the trachoma diagnosis is more likely. Ray Charles would remember his symptoms well. The sharecropper living conditions were bound to be conducive to that kind of infection.

How cool that a few disparate individuals can make these connections via movies, the web, blogs,... I love it.