The Eyes of the Blind

Strictly 80’s Joel

Recently, I was listening to a Billy Joel playlist and heard a song that I haven’t heard in a while, “The River of Dreams.” Although my favorite album of his and what’d I’d consider to be his best album is “The Stranger,” River of Dreams still slaps. Though I’ve heard the song several times in the past, this was the first time I really paid attention to the lyrics in the song that describes a dream sequence. In it, were specific lines that intrigued me. “In the middle of the night, I go walking in my sleep, through the jungle of doubt, to a river so deep, I know I’m searching for something, something so undefined, that it can only be seen, by the eyes of the blind, in the middle of the night.” What Joel is alluding to in this passage is that once asleep, he is able to gain insight and wisdom that can only be drawn in a state where we are not blinded by delusion. The “Dream” is meant to represent the consultation of the unconscious mind, seeing beyond the clouded filters that often hide insight into ourselves and the broader world. After hearing these lyrics my mind immediately began thinking of the endless amount of literary, mythological, artistic, and religious examples using the metaphor of vision and blindness. 

The Force

In one of my favorite films, “Star Wars: A New Hope,” there’s a scene where the wise elder Obi-Wan Kenobi is training his pupil Luke Skywalker on the use of a lightsaber. A training device referred to as a “Remote” is floating in the air, shifting while firing small laser bullets at Skywalker that he must use his weapon to defend himself. While doing so, his instincts lack and he keeps getting hit with the laser and grows increasingly frustrated. It is at this point that Obi-Wan grabs a helmet with a dirty visor that renders Skywalker blind.

Obi-Wan: “Let go of your conscious self and act on instinct.” As he covers Luke’s eyes.

Luke: “I can’t even see, how am I supposed to fight?”

Obi-Wan: “Your eyes can deceive you, don’t trust them. Reach out with your feelings.”

Upon being blinded, Luke for the first time defends himself.

Luke: “You know, I did feel something, I could almost see the remote”

Obi-Wan: “That’s good, you’ve taken your first step into a larger world.”

The “Larger world” Obi-Wan speaks of is one of consciousness, the awareness of self and the world around him.

Mythology

In Greek Mythology there’s a tale of a prophet named, “Teiresias.” There are many iterations of the tale however the basis is that Teiresias entered himself into a marital squabble between Zeus and his wife, Hera. Upon siding with Zeus in the argument, Hera struck Teiresias blind. Out of either sympathy or appreciation (Perhaps both), Zeus granted Teiresias divine wisdom and the gift of foresight.

In Homer’s epic, “The Odyssey,” this theme of physical blindness as metaphorical wisdom runs throughout. When Odysseus is trapped in a cave with the monster cyclops “Polyphemus,” who just ate six of his men, he is able to deceive him and escape to freedom. Only when Odysseus and five of his men put a spear into the cyclops’ eye, blinding him, is the cyclops able to see that he was being deceived by Odysseus. Polyphemus’ arrogance prevented him from diagnosing Odysseus as a viable threat, and was he able to be defeated. Later in the epic, Odysseus, a man known for his exceptional cleverness, travels to the underworld to seek wisdom and guidance from the aforementioned blind prophet, Teiresias.

Shakespeare

In Shakespeare’s classic, “King Lear” an integral theme throughout is this same idea of vision-blindness and blind vision. Two of the characters, Lear and Gloucester begin the story with physical vision but metaphorical blindness, being unaware of all that is going on around them. King Lear is blind to all the happenings within his kingdom as well as within his family. As the story goes on, Gloucester’s eyes become plucked from his face but in the process, he gains clarity, wisdom, and insight, traits that the vision-abled Lear does not possess. While Lear maintains his physical vision, he becomes increasingly fooled by all that is around him, losing his mind in the process, at one point begging Gloucester to take his eyes in exchange for his physical (and metaphorical) blindness. Begging to be blinded in order to see.

Chianti

I recently re-watched, the Silence of the Lambs. Throughout the entirety of the story, FBI agent Clarisse Starling is trying to find out the identity of the serial killer, “Buffalo Bill” to no avail. Starling is an intelligent and clever detective who seeks help from the genius and insane Dr. Hannibal Lecter. As he is guiding her along the path to find the murderer he says to her, “You’re so close to the way you’re gonna catch him, do you realize that?” Implying the answer is right in front of her face and yet, she cannot see it. At the climax of the film, Agent Starling arrives at the home of the murderer, meeting face to face in the middle of the day. Even as they’re conversing, she still does not know that it is him. Eventually, they find themselves in a basement where Buffalo Bill turns the lights off, rendering the detective blind while he maintains his vision through the use of night-vision goggles. With guns drawn, Starling is feeling around the basement, appearing to be a sitting duck awaiting imminent death. While the murderer approaches Starling from the rear, she is able to sense him and turns around firing shots and killing him. The symbolic irony is that only when she was blinded, was she able to see.

Great Deception

There’s an old quote from a 16th-century Dutch philosopher, Desiderius Erasmus that goes, “In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” I would posit a revision to this quote, “In the valley of the seeing, the blind man is king.”

The world is often not as it seems. We are constantly pulled in a thousand different directions that often distract and lead us astray. Only by plucking one’s eyes can we begin to see past the veils of delusion and deception. Only when we become blind do we begin to consult our inner conscious, using the tools of logic and reason to see things for what they are, not as they are presented nor how they appear. The Greek philosopher and orator, Demosthenes said, “Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what every man wishes, that he also believes to be true.” I, and we, through confirmation biases, arrogance, pride, comfort, and for a multitude of reasons, allow ourselves to often be shielded from truth. While vision comes from the eyes, sight comes from within.