Losing the ability to see must be a frightening and harrowing experience as your world becomes filled with nothing but darkness. Famed American author and political activist, Helen Keller, was not only blind, she was also deaf, but you wouldn’t know it.
Her writings and teachings show a young, confident woman filled with enormous strength, passion and the knowledge of what’s truly important during our tenure here on this earth. She once wrote, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
Though the majority of us are fortunate enough to possess the ability to see and hear clearly, that doesn’t mean some of us aren’t blind – willingly blind that is. While those two words, “willingly blind,” might seem like an oxymoron, in reality it couldn’t be more fitting for the human race today.
So many of us are afflicted by willing blindness – choosing to turn a “blind” eye to the shortcomings which plague our lives, in return for not disrupting the normalcy we’ve grown accustomed to. In essence we settle. We stay in bad relationships because it’s easier than being alone, continue with the same occupation for fear of taking risks and defend our own actions rather than acknowledge the possibility that we simply aren’t perfect.
And while opening our eyes to something we wish we didn’t have to see can oftentimes bring us more difficulties than triumphs, in the end your “vision” will be clearer and you’ll be living a life of utter honesty – not only with those around you, but with yourself.
It’s ironic how those who find themselves living with a disability, such as Helen Keller was, have learned more about living life to the fullest than many of us ever will. Funny how all it really takes is our willingness to simply open our eyes.
