The One-eyed Man In The Land Of The Blind

[Salaam]

They say that “In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king”, but that is far from true. For after generation, after generation such blindness becomes “normal” and vision a faded memory at best or a fairy tale. So the one-eyed man, self-freed, to open but one eye and give voice to his view is met with doubt, ridicule, derision, and accused of superiority and hubris. His words and feelings of vision find no common ground for communication, no bridge of understanding. He is alone, with what in his time “doesn’t exist” in the clouded eyes of a blind society.

No, he is no king and has no wish to be. The trials of expansion, burn such paltry things away from him. See, it is completely up to him in this new world of vision and color, no else can see, that no one else dares risk to believe. He has to face this new world and translate it’s meaning all the while shouldering the burden of a world that tells him he is wrong. Can you imagine creating the words for color and all it’s different shades? All the while those around you scoff at such a concept? How do you describe beauty or light to the blind? How do you deal with all the feelings that come from sight, that we take for granted everyday, that he would have no name, no reference for? How do you deal with such a weight of potential with no one at all to turn to and ask if this is “right”. This man who is now so far beyond the edges of this time’s human understanding.

Perhaps, many would choose to close that single eye and find solace in being “just like everyone else”. They would tell themselves the rest were right and they were crazy to think such a thing as vision was real. And the beauty of something new to rise again would die in it’s infancy. Could you bear such a death upon your soul?

Or do you have it in you to care enough to push through and take on the task of breathing life into something new? I’d like to think that deep down, there is a place in your soul that shakes at the terrible, beautiful costs of such a task, but still nods yes. It’s hard to know and be sure isn’t it? We ask and search and silence answers, unless we have already stepped out on such a road. Such is life. We never feel the burden and then know it, till we take it up in our hands and try to take a step… and that tells us something doesn’t it?

We are ALL blind in so many ways. Blind to the depths of our own blindness and the depths of our potential. Blind to whether or not we can take that step, till we do, and when we do, we are blind to the step after. We’re never ready or prepared for something we’ve never done, but that doesn’t mean we can’t succeed and that doesn’t mean we aren’t capable. Just like that one-eyed man, we must step forward to see, all the while still blind in some way, to some degree, but with every step less so.

Whether recovering something lost or translating what was never before seen, we have the choice to risk it all and step into our blindness. Or we can choose to stay where everyone else already is, where it’s safe and certain and comfortable. Nothing new, more of the same. The devil you know, but your potential a stranger.

So what’s it going to be? Your choice holds immeasurable cost, but is simple. Will you close your eyes or will you step forward into the harsh dazzling light, with one eye open and the other blind, striding both worlds but finding solace in none? A man whose remaining blindness takes on a new meaning. No longer a limitation, that still closed eye becomes a scarred badge of honor and a reminder of all that is left to travel on this long, long road.

Do you know why? It’s because that man knows that in his remaining closed eye is all his potential still yet to be realized. A sign that there is still more.

Always more.

Blindness transformed into the mystery of possibility.

[charlie2dogs]

1 hour ago, Salaam said:

They say that “In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king”, but that is far from true. For after generation, after generation such blindness becomes “normal” and vision a faded memory at best or a fairy tale. So the one-eyed man, self-freed, to open but one eye and give voice to his view is met with doubt, ridicule, derision, and accused of superiority and hubris. His words and feelings of vision find no common ground for communication, no bridge of understanding. He is alone, with what in his time “doesn’t exist” in the clouded eyes of a blind society.

No, he is no king and has no wish to be. The trials of expansion, burn such paltry things away from him. See, it is completely up to him in this new world of vision and color, no else can see, that no one else dares risk to believe. He has to face this new world and translate it’s meaning all the while shouldering the burden of a world that tells him he is wrong. Can you imagine creating the words for color and all it’s different shades? All the while those around you scoff at such a concept? How do you describe beauty or light to the blind? How do you deal with all the feelings that come from sight, that we take for granted everyday, that he would have no name, no reference for? How do you deal with such a weight of potential with no one at all to turn to and ask if this is “right”. This man who is now so far beyond the edges of this time’s human understanding.

Perhaps, many would choose to close that single eye and find solace in being “just like everyone else”. They would tell themselves the rest were right and they were crazy to think such a thing as vision was real. And the beauty of something new to rise again would die in it’s infancy. Could you bear such a death upon your soul?

Or do you have it in you to care enough to push through and take on the task of breathing life into something new? I’d like to think that deep down, there is a place in your soul that shakes at the terrible, beautiful costs of such a task, but still nods yes. It’s hard to know and be sure isn’t it? We ask and search and silence answers, unless we have already stepped out on such a road. Such is life. We never feel the burden and then know it, till we take it up in our hands and try to take a step… and that tells us something doesn’t it?

We are ALL blind in so many ways. Blind to the depths of our own blindness and the depths of our potential. Blind to whether or not we can take that step, till we do, and when we do, we are blind to the step after. We’re never ready or prepared for something we’ve never done, but that doesn’t mean we can’t succeed and that doesn’t mean we aren’t capable. Just like that one-eyed man, we must step forward to see, all the while still blind in some way, to some degree, but with every step less so.

Whether recovering something lost or translating what was never before seen, we have the choice to risk it all and step into our blindness. Or we can choose to stay where everyone else already is, where it’s safe and certain and comfortable. Nothing new, more of the same. The devil you know, but your potential a stranger.

So what’s it going to be? Your choice holds immeasurable cost, but is simple. Will you close your eyes or will you step forward into the harsh dazzling light, with one eye open and the other blind, striding both worlds but finding solace in none? A man whose remaining blindness takes on a new meaning. No longer a limitation, that still closed eye becomes a scarred badge of honor and a reminder of all that is left to travel on this long, long road.

Do you know why? It’s because that man knows that in his remaining closed eye is all his potential still yet to be realized. A sign that there is still more.

Always more.

Blindness transformed into the mystery of possibility.

if you want to see, drop your belief system