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THREE DAYS TO SEE (page 11)
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My third day of sight is drawing to an end. Perhaps there are many serious
pursuits to which I should devote the few remaining hours, but I am afraid that
on the evening of that last day I should again run away to the theatre, to a
hilariously funny play, so that I might appreciate the overtones of comedy in
the human spirit.
At midnight my temporary respite from blindness would cease, and permanent
night would close in on me again. Naturally in those three short days I should
not have seen all I wanted to see. Only when darkness had again descended upon
me should I realize how much I had left unseen. But my mind would be so crowded
with glorious memories that I should have little time for regrets. Thereafter
the touch of every object would bring a glowing memory of how that object
looked.
Perhaps this short outline of how I should spend three days of sight does not
agree with the programme you would set for yourself if you knew that you were
about to be stricken blind. I am, however, sure that if you actually faced that
fate your eyes would open to things you had never seen before, storing up
memories for the long night ahead. You would use your eyes as never before.
Everything you saw would become dear to you. Your eyes would touch and embrace
every object that came within your range of vision. Then, at last, you would
really see, and a new world of beauty would open itself before you.
I who am blind can give one hint to those who see—one admonition to those
who would make full use of the gift of sight: Use your eyes as if tomorrow you
would be stricken blind. And the same method can be applied to the other
senses. Hear the music of voices, the song of a bird, the mighty strains of an
orchestra, as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow. Touch each object you
want to touch as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. Smell the perfume
of flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you could never smell
and taste again. Make the most of every sense; glory in all the facets of
pleasure and beauty which the world reveals to you through the several means of
contact which Nature provides. But of all the senses, I am sure that sight must
be the most delightful.
