Some years ago, I went through a cataract operation. It didn’t work out, and I became blind in one eye. Shortly afterward, my other eye developed a cataract. That operation was successful, except a couple years later I had a detached retina in that eye.
For a short period, before an operation to reattach the retina, I felt the horrifying experience of being blind. Thank God it was temporary.
During some of these stages, the late Lollie Drew, well-known in Waukegan for her voluntary community activities, would come to my office and check with my visual problems. Lollie had similar cataract difficulties and she eventually became blind. Because I didn’t want to be a burden on anyone if things didn’t work out, I learned from her the fortitude that you must be of strong will and make adjustments, if it comes to that.
At about that time, I became interested in the works of Helen Keller, who became both blind and deaf at just 19 months after her birth. She became a prominent author, lecturer and social scientist, and became the first blind and deaf person to receive a university degree.
When I was going through my eye problems, I read some of Keller’s writings, one of which was titled “Three Days to See.” It was a magazine account of what she would like to see if she were granted full sight for just three days. All of it was illuminating and moving. She said that she would pray for the glory of a colorful sunset.
Keller said that it would be a blessing if each human were stricken blind and deaf for only a few days in their adult lives. Darkness would make them more appreciative of their sight, and silence would reach within them the joys of sound. She said that we take for granted the senses that we are given and use them for convenience rather than for the fulfillment of our lives. To many who have sight, so much of life is still dark.
Helen Keller also said that if she were president of a university she would establish a compulsory course in “how to use your eyes.” Professors would try to show their pupils how they could add joy to their lives by really seeing what passes unnoticed before them.
When my wife and I attend summer concerts at Independence Grove, she would walk off to get a good glimpse of the sunset. To those who say when you’ve seen one sunset, you’ve seen them all, that’s not true. Different cloud formations upon which the sun showers its beams give a different radiance and brilliance that only nature can cast.
Our eyes can be lazy and we don’t really see what we’re looking at. Keller’s proof of that was when she would ask husbands the color of their wives’ eyes. They would sheepishly admit, “I don’t know.”
One of Helen Keller’s most profound quotations was, “It’s a terrible thing to see and have no vision.”
She was so right. All of us should use our common sense, to use all of the sense that God has given us, to enrich our lives.