Sunday 28 October 2012

Background

"Let me see again."

Think about it for a moment: it seemslike a no-brainer, that a blind man should want to see again. Butclearly this man's blindness has not been lifelong; he uses theword "again". He can remember what it was like to see, and hopeshis condition is not permanent.

Those of us who are sighted can easilytake the gift for granted. Yet it's really hard to imagine how wewould cope without it, whether in reading, watching television,crossing the road, watching birds on the garden feederor childrenplay in the park, seeing a rainbow or a sunrise or the astonishingcolours of a flower.

With our eyes we see images. Nowthere's a word whose use has changed over the years! It is nowcustomary for photographers talk about the 'images' stored on theircomputers, whereas once they might refer to the 'pictures' neatlyfiled and captioned in their albums. In the public realm, the word'image' has come to denote a carefully-crafted presentation of acelebrity's background, appearance, personality, views, goals, andso on. Any correspondence with reality might turn out to be rathersketchy!

This man was quite willing to make hisvoice heard in a crowd. He knew what he wanted, and refused to besilenced even when he was making people cross. He wanted to see, tobe able to take part again in the busy hurly-burly of life. Hewanted to have access to 'real images', not the imaginary onesconjured up in his brain by the descriptions and stories of hisfriends or by the sounds he heard. He wanted a more complete kindof truth.

To Ponder

• Have you ever consciously cultivated a public image? Why? How(new dress, new car)? What changed: your view of yourself, or otherpeople's view of you?

• What 'more complete kind of truth' are you looking for? Andhow? Is anyone helping you in your search?