Do we choose to be Blind?

I believe that a lot of us, at some time or another during our lifetime, go through our days as if we were blind to the rest of the world. It's almost as if for whatever reason we were struck blind all of a sudden. I've felt this way at times when I either refused to “see” what was going on around me, or even “see” another's point of view. Sometimes I would slap my forehead and say something like-”Oops, I lost my awareness there for a while”; or, using the expression from the TV commercial for V8 juice, “I could have had a V8!”...that's one of my personal favorites and I've used it for years.

This past weekend I received one of the Netflix movies, Blindness, I had put in my que at the beginning of the summer. I don't know if any of you have seen it, but it looked intriguing and I like the actors in it (especially Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Danny Glover). It started out interestingly enough with various characters being suddenly struck “blind” seeing a white light, rather than black darkness, and the initial choice of characters to be stricken were curiously selected. Mark Ruffalo played an Opthamologist, for example. I started to look for contrasts and similarities in their personalities and was becoming quite philosophical and even psychological about the strategic selections made by the writers as to whom would become blind. I took it a step further and put myself in Julianna Moore's character, who was the ONLY protagonist in the cast of characters (other than the government people – isn't THAT interesting?) ” amongst the hundreds who were sharing a government controlled prison-like, internment camp hospital environment who could actually “see”. She had chosen to accompany her husband, played by Mark Ruffalo, when he was the first to be transported to the quarantine facility because she wanted to be supportive and to help him.

As the movie progresses, all sense of order breaks loose in the hospital. Moore continues to keep her sight a secret and tries to minimize the chaos to little avail. It is up to her to lead a group safely to the streets without getting shot by the government appointed guards who truly believe that physical contact with these people will inflict them with the blindness as well. On the most part, I think that a psychologist would have a full time practice analyzing the significance of each character's blindness (as well as those not blinded) and I'd almost be curious enough to read the case files or attempt an analysis of my own. But, in truth, I can't tell you how the movie ended-I did not choose to watch the ensuing chaos past the halfway point of the movie.

What does that say about me? Initially I felt it was because it was too depressing and I didn't need to put myself through that. Now, two days later, I'm thinking it was because it struck home on several levels (which was probably the point for making the movie in the first place, DUH!).

All my life I've been helping people – especially the last 3 years during my husband's health issues. All my life I've tried to be the practical “leader” in many situations that required making sense out of chaos. And, more times than I can count, I've tried to put a bandage on things that didn't look or feel right in the hopes that the negative stuff would disappear and “be all better” in a flash. Talk about turning a “blind eye” to life! Well, I've decided, at least for the next few days, I'm going to CHOOSE to keep my eyes open. Open to new ideas, new possibilities, new opportunities, new relationships, new surroundings, …..anything NEW and fresh I am welcoming into my life and making an agreement with myself to “see it” for what it is, on ANY level...as long as I allow myself to SEE!

I believe that BLINDNESS and/or losing even partial sight on physical and/or psychological levels, is all about making choices. We have the FREEDOM to choose how we want to live our lives every single second of every single day. The choices might be smaller or fewer for some than others, but even ONE choice is better than NO choice, and we all at least have one. Pick it! Choose it! Live it! That's my new mantra today.

Thanks you for letting me share my thoughts with you. I hope I have given you something positive to think about and something new to ponder.

From Me 2 You Online,
Laurie Jo