A Perspective on No Perception

My daughter came home from school with a writing project based on a story about two people who go blind early in life and how each creates their own path, leading unique lives.

The author leaves room for us to imagine and fill in the blanks about how both the beggar and the businessman choose to handle their seemingly identical challenges. Given the choice of a motif—attitude, perseverance, perspective, or courage—my daughter chose perspective.

Which got me thinking: I could leave the story as is and simply widen its view, or I could rewrite the entire narrative—one where the beggar builds a beautiful family that adores him, while the businessman climbs the proverbial ladder of success and status, neglecting anything of real value.

I’ll leave that to you, the reader, to imagine and reconstruct.

At first glance, the natural instinct is to applaud the businessman for not allowing his undeniable challenges to break him, keep him handicapped, or exclude him from society.

But that would be a focus on attitude, perseverance, and courage.

I’m talking about perspective.

Is it possible the businessman always felt inferior? That he saw himself as second-class, never given an equal opportunity in life, and constantly needing to prove that his existence was justified?

Could it be that, while always striving for greater heights, he never took a moment to stop and look around (pun intended) from the inside—where eyes aren’t needed—and realize that nothing external would ever make him whole?

That nothing from the outside could fill the void of his orbit (pun intended again)?

This kind of work requires no eyesight at all—only the vision of the soul, given to us at conception.

The beggar, on the other hand, never felt the need to justify or prove anything to anyone. He accepted his lot in life and did not run to external validation, societal approval, or distractions to soothe his pain.

Maybe he realized early on that what makes a person whole is purely internal, and that he is more than what meets the eye (these puns 🙄).

Needless to say, we aren’t judging either of these two people or claiming there is a “right” path—it’s just a matter of perspective, of seeing things from a different viewpoint.

On a deeper level, we are both the beggar and the businessman.

We all have our disadvantages and disabilities, and we each choose how we show up to life. Both perspectives exist within us, and we know them both to be true.

Just as we don’t judge the beggar or the businessman for how they responded to their challenges, we should also not judge ourselves when, at times, we resemble one or the other.

May Hashem illuminate our world and its orbit with the true light that allows us to perceive Him in all His glory.

Amen.

(That’s not really a pun…)

— איש