When One Does Not See: A writing prompt

Here is the full prompt:

When one does not see
what one does not see
one does not even see
that one is blind.

My oldest son came home yesterday after his first full day of school and this is his first essay assignment.

When he told me what the prompt was, I got inspired to write my perspective on this.  I'm sure we will both come up with very different versions both unique to our voices.



Is it the truth indeed that we all are blind?  Is it the person that is truly blind can see much better than us?  I would say it all depends on the person and how they view the world through their mind's eye perspective.

What one would choose to see, another does not see and therefore is oblivious to the fact it is truly there in vivid shape and form.  So many things that exist seem to just float on by undetected by human sight.

Simply begging us to be found yet we walk on by.  Driving by concentrating on all that makes us distracted in life not realizing that we are completely unaware of what exists in this world. 

Blind is what we can really be sometimes.  Did you ever just drive along waiting in traffic and you don't stop to notice the tragic weeping willow tree silently planted in the ground for an extremely long time.  It it could talk, it would probably say, "Take the time to look at me.  I am here and I am tall, proud and beautiful.  Don't forget about me ever."

We don't really stop to look at all the nature around us. But it's not just the nature that we are sometimes oblivious to until we find ourselves taking off the blindfolds and then we begin to SEE.  It's everything that surrounds us.

Just think about all the things you could be inspired to write about if you just could dare to dream, hope, pray and then write down your thoughts and record them.

Or maybe you would rather photograph them.  It's like a quiet image in time.  If we don't see it because we are blind, who do you think is going to find it?  Nothing in this world completely passes us by but like death and dying all these surroundings have a death point when it seizes to exist because it got overlooked and then it's existence changed somehow and it now does not seem to be there anymore.

It has changed as the world changes.  We cannot compete with change, slow it down and alter what was in the past.  Surroundings are always there and we just tend to evolve around it.

Each object has a purpose in life and what it boils down to is for us to stop not seeing and realize that we have the choice to find all these undetected images, thoughts and feelings and decide to document it somehow so it is remembered for what it was.

We can make it what we want it to be.  And above all not to be blind to what we can create with our mind's eye.

We should make the most of our perspective, listen to our new discoveries and learn to see.  Nobody should ever block it all and be blind to the world.  It's what makes us who we are as creative individuals.

Look around you and make your choices as they are yours and yours alone.  Nobody can do this for you.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted August 30, 2012