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THE title is the heading of a chapter in the book,
An Anthropologist on Mars, where neurologist Oliver Sacks describes the case
of those rare adults whose vision is restored after they've been born blind
or have become sightless at a very Young age. It's very different from the
movies where the protagonist immediately starts seeing everything again. On
the contrary, in real life it's almost like going blind all over again, only
this time with the eyes functioning perfectly well. The reason is because, "
One does not see, or sense, or perceive in isolation," writes Sacks. "
Perception is always linked to behaviour and movement, to reaching out and
exploring the world. It is insufficient to see, one must also look as well."
It's the same thing with most of us who have always had normal eyesight all
through our lives. We see so much of the world that after a while we develop
a paucity of vision and forget how to use our eyes to actively look at
things. Without this dynamic and conscious act operating, we allow our sight
to atrophy and, over a period of time, slowly become another kind of blind.
And, whereas the physiologically blind compensate by refining their other
senses, in our case these senses too gradually turn " sightless" in the same
way. We touch things around us but we don't feel them; we taste food, we no
longer savour it; we hear things, we don't listen to them any more.
What's more, instead of understanding or realising our
lack of sight we cultivate the emergent blindness and actually foster it to
grow. We look away, close our eyes or, when forced to at least glimpse at
something for some reason, spare only darting glances towards it in order to
take in as little as possible. Is it any wonder then that so much of what's
happening around us, all over, and everywhere, remains largely unseen and
only a narrow blinkered tunnel vision guides us through life ?
Children don't let such trees get in the way of their woods.
Neither do they let the world blind them, for even though they don't think
of sight as a gift for seeing things, they treat it like one and are,
therefore, rewarded with the ability to see whatever they look at.
Fortunately, some of us also manage to retain that child sight in us. Those
of us that don't however, need to develop it in a hurry before the lack of
it impoverishes us to such an extent that we stop caring about the things
that surround us. And, in the process, contribute towards the degradation of
not only ourselves but the reality which we're part of. |
