blackrockbulletin: Adventures in Paradise Volume 2 #17

Kia ora, our excellent adventure continues with some thoughts on what we see and what we wish not to see. We have new friends here who face challenges far beyond what most of us will ever experience. Both Samantha and Jason are blind. Jason was born blind and Samantha lost her sight as a child due a sudden infection. This couple has two beautiful dark-eyed children and my first thought on meeting Samantha was that it was such a shame that she will never see the sweet faces of her two little boys.

As we became better acquainted, I welcomed the opportunity to learn more about how Samantha goes about her life. We were invited to dinner and I will admit to a certain amount of trepidation concerning how she navigated in her kitchen. It turns out that she is a master at making a roast beef dinner and her homemade bread is delicious. But my curiosity was more directed towards the question of how she accomplishes many of the tasks associated with parenting. When I asked her how she could discern whether her baby’s bottom was clean after a nappie change, she simply smiled and answered, “it’s instinct”. Sensing that I was about to ask other probing questions about child care, she smiled again and gave me the same answer. Being blind does not blind her to the fact that her child needs attention, it simply means that she can detect that need more instinctively that most. In an interesting juxtaposition, her three-year old instinctively knows that he needs to stay close to his mother and is not prone to wander off as most toddlers would be tempted to do.

Once, when we were having a little chat, Samantha said something that I have been pondering ever since. She told me that in many ways, she felt sorry for all sighted people because they are forced to see things that are ugly. She expressed gratitude that she would never see physical suffering. She would never see people mistreating one another and although she might know or hear of the atrocities of war, she would never view photos or news items of any of those conflicts. There would never be any mental image of the cruelty involved etched indelibly in her mind. She said that she is not the least bit unhappy about not being able to view television programs or movies, with their questionable content. And she is pleased that she will not be confronted with views of graffiti, or slums. As fascinated as I was with her stance, I wondered aloud to her about the fact that she would never see the faces of her children. Would being able to see them, be worth seeing all of the worlds’ ugliness?

While Samantha prefers things the way they are, I have been considering what those of us who can see should do about the view. If we see suffering, do we try to do something to alleviate it? Are we concerned enough to try to make things better. Should we speak up when we see injustice? Unlike Samantha, who has no choice, we do have the option of seeing or not. Who we are, I think in large part, depends on what we choose to see.

Since I have started wearing contacts, I have been grateful every morning for the miracle of seeing well. In that moment where fuzziness is replaced by clarity, I marvel about the blessing of being able to see. I am so grateful for the little unexpected moments every day where something I see makes me smile. While I am sympathetic to Samantha’s viewpoint, I find the world far more beautiful than perhaps she thinks it is. And just possibly because we can see the ugly, seeing it may give us the opportunity of making some things just a little less unattractive. I am grateful for a Creator who has given me an endless supply of reasons to smile.

As always, we are happy and trying to work hard. We see that so many of you look for ways to make our world a little more beautiful and we thank you for all the times that you have made us smile. Our photos this week have no particular theme, save it be that they have all brought smiles to our faces. Our world here is beautiful and we would like to share it with you. Please enjoy

Love, Ward and Susan Elder and Sister Belliston, serving in Gisborne, New Zealand