It’s pitch black. You can’t see your plate, your silverware or the person next to you.
Oh, and the waiter is blind.
Guests dining in the dark Tuesday night at the Foundation Fighting Blindness’ dinner at the Tysons Corner Ritz Carlton were feeling for food, eating with their hands, yelling to compensate for their loss in vision and starting to realize what it’s like to dine without sight.
“You were presented directly in your face at your table with the adversity of dining in the dark,” said Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas. “I thank you for going out of your comfort zone.”
Sessions mentioned the adversity his family faced with health-related issues including his father, William Sessions’, fight with polio, the loss of a younger brother to heart disease, raising a son with down syndrome and a family member’s recent diagnosis with Retinitis pigmentosa.
Honored guests at the event were dinner co-chairwomen Jody Kelly and Donna Burke Tehaan; former Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va.; Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va.; and William Sessions, a former director of the FBI. Also spotted: Georgetown socialite Missy Janes and financial analyst Karen Petrou.
As for the swag bag? You’ll have to bid on eBay for an authentic harmonica signed by Stevie Wonder that he donated in support of the foundation.
