Dr Abe V Rotor
“Good bye,” said the fox to the Little Prince, “And here is my secret.”
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
(The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
It’s rightly so. Take it from Water Lily or Nymphaea (photo), which is among the last paintings of French impressionist, Claude Monet (1840-1926) before he became totally blind. The scenery draws deeper meaning from the accompanying verse from Auguries of Innocence, William Blake’s late prophetic poem – fearless and free.
How perfect is the combination of these two masterpieces - made by artists who “saw” the world differently from that of ours – we who are unaffected of sight or any sense, we who are not infirmed in life. Nymphaea represents our natural world, undisturbed and unspoiled by human hands, while Auguries of Innocence speaks of the purity of mankind, reverent and subservient to a Higher Principle, and sensitive to the world.
To see the World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven a Wild Flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
- William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
Edgar Degas also suffered from very poor eyesight towards the end of his life. Surprising it is in this twilight zone that artists made their masterpieces.
Here are other famous people with sight problems
• Andrea Bocelli - opera singer
• Loiuse Braille - inventor of braille
• Ray Charles - American singer and composer
• Helen Keller - American author, philanthropist
• John Milton - English poet
• Horatio Nelson - British admiral
• Rembrandt – Dutch painter
• Stevie Wonder – American singer
• St. Paul - Apostle
• Homer - Greek poet
• Samson - Biblical hero
Here are biblical, religious and fiction characters, too, that are popular to many of us.
• Tiresias - mythological, Greek seer
• Odin - Norse god
• Horus - Egyptian god
• Oedipus - mythological Greek King
• Cupid/Eros - Greek/Roman god of love
We have local Blind Musicians in our midst performing in malls, fiestas, and in various occasion. A live band of five to as many as twenty plays instruments and sings as other famous bands do. In spite of being blind these musicians find joy in entertaining people. They pursue a happy life and live normal like other people do.
Quite often we hear people invariably asking this question on who is fit to live? Who of us best deserve life? How do we earn our worthiness to live? It’s a casual question, yet it is perhaps the most difficult to answer, because the art of living is the most difficult of all the arts. Perhaps we can draw some thoughts from John Milton’s works, the most famous is Paradise Lost.
“God doth not need Either man’s work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best.
His state is kingly.
Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.”
- John Milton, When I Consider How My Light Is Spent, 1652
Many people have various versions of how live is well lived with nature. In Living with Nature in Our Times, a book I wrote in 2006, I tried to make a capsule that tries to capture my own definition, greatly influenced by my associates in the field and academe. To wit:
“Nature shares her bounty in many ways:
He who works or he who prays,
Who patiently waits or gleefully plays;
He is worthy of the same grace."
- A V Rotor, Living with Nature in Our Times
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