But I do not believe that blindness or poverty or illness or natural disasters fall into the category of evil. These hard things can make us stronger and better people if we allow God to be a part of our effort to cope with them. I try to live my life like a sailboat. I don't know where I am headed, and I can't be sure of calm weather, but if I can allow God to stand at the tiller and provide the wind that fills my sails, I have learned that I will not end up on the rocks. It takes years and lots of experience to come to this faith, but I believe these things to be true.
Blindness can be hard, but so can many other things in life.
Trusting God is the easiest, most reliable way to survive and be content. The last letter in this exchange is from Pat's mom. He is quite the opposite. I do want to say that the letters sure made Pat think about God more, and I believe they helped him understand more. The people really wrote incredible e-mails about his poem, which meant a lot to both of us.