Blinded

This quote brings to mind one of my favorite lines in a song lyric:  “Sometimes you are blinded by the very thing you need to see.” It’s from a song by Mary Chapin Carpenter, one of my favorite singer songwriters ever. What I like about it is how it continually teaches me to see things as clearly as possible, even those things so bright and shiny, so ‘perfect’ that they blind me. They might be the very thing I need to see.

And this quote is about the same thing.  Am I aware of my blind spots in life?  My attitudes, that are so ingrained as to be unseen?  My behaviors that I have rationalized for so long that they are now completely legitimatized and seldom questioned?

Obscured

In a car, the blind spots are those areas that are blocked by the car itself.  The frame of the car holding up the roof, the hood bulging out in front, covering the engine. Visors, mirrors, seats, decals, and more also add to the visibility problem.

And how are we trained to compensate for those things?  We are taught to be slow and deliberate, to be methodical. We are told to move our head and body to see around the obstructions.

This can be applied to our attitudes and behaviors as well.  Stop and think. In my words am I perpetuating something I have not evaluated and considered in a long time?

Looking Deeper

The other way we do this is by seeing only the surface of something. We deem something as being without value in its current state and so we overlook it.  How we see the elderly is a perfect example of that.

I remember way back when I lived in San Jose, California. The pastor of our church had been fired and we had an interim pastor.  He was very old, retired as a full time pastor and now just filling in as an interim when needed.  On one occasion he complimented me on my suit, which included a short waisted Eisenhower style jacket.  He pointed it out and said he thought I looked sharp. After that I started to look at him more closely. He wore well tailored and stylish clothes that were appropriate for his age and position. He dressed better than 90% of the men in the congregation, that was for sure.  That led me to imagine him as a younger man.  I saw him romancing his wife on the dance floor, looking sharp in a military uniform, and any number of other activities he might have done back in the day, all done with panache and style and a twinkle in his eye, which he still had.

We became ‘shake hands at the steps’ friends, talking about the sermon, complimenting hats, jackets, vestments, etc. He turned out to be one cool dude.

What are you missing in your blind spots?

Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman

Quote by George Herbert, 1593-1633, English poet

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