By Morris Dean
I believe that we need not, like Hugues de Montalembert, become blind in order to "see those things that light makes invisible."
However, we need to empty ourselves of preconceived notions and open ourselves up to the nature of things.
...Your eyes are rascals: they left for the world of the dead without waiting for you. Eyes are for perceiving danger; they have departed before your death, so danger will no longer come from the visible world.I sit under the pergola watching a goldfinch and a bluebird
But they also let me perceive beauty!
Beauty is a shadow that is borne by every object, every person, like the signature of the Creator....Your fingers are already touching the heart of things. You will see those things that light makes invisible. You will see the little shadow in the shadow. You will see beauty, the signature. Listen to the fountain. Don't you see every tiny drop of it?
It's true. I see and scrutinize every drop like the sparkling of diamonds. [–Eclipse: A Nightmare, p. 190]
as they sit on the edge of the fountain vase.
Each occasionally dips its beak or flutters
out over the surface of the water to wet its wings.
Could I, if I had walked out of the house with closed eyes
and stumbled and felt about for a chair,
have detected even the presence of birds,
let alone two such comely creatures?
If I were blind, could I learn to hear well enough
to detect such presences? And would that be
sufficient to see these creatures' "little shadows"?
It would have to be, as it has to be sufficient now
that I feel I can touch to the soul of a bird,
for that is its true beauty, which we miss
if we shine too much light on the shadow.
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Copyright © 2013 by Morris Dean
| Please comment |
Recently I listened to a radio program about a blind man who had learned to find his way by use of echolocation. It was intriguing to hear how much more of his surroundings he could "see" than could those people around him who were not blind.
ReplyDeleteDe Montalebert discovered quickly that he was adept at echolocation. The stories of his perambulations in Eclipse are remarkable.
DeleteVery good Morris. With your sight problems, I felt these were questions you may have had to face?
ReplyDeleteI wrote the two lines above and fell into thought as to how my life would change without sight. The picture was not pretty. Food for thought however. Good job.