Green and Yellow

So what if a blind man cannot tell the difference between a green thing or a yellow thing, and has no idea at all about the concept of colour?

Sure he missed something that normally sighted people has - the experience of the colourful. But so what if he is unable to have such an experience?

It is certainly a different life. But it may not be any less richer. For, as an example, he may have a keener sense of sound and touch compared to sighted people.

And life may not be any less meaningful too. It can even be more meaningful: for life is not merely about things seen but even more so, it is certainly about things unseen, such as love and beauty and joy and fulfillment, and many other things of the spirit, just as life is not merely about food, drink and sex.

For example the things written in this words are entirely spiritual. They are not about things seen or touched or heard. But yet these things may matter more for life than anything seen or touched or heard.

But unless a blind man recognises and accepts that he can never know colour, he may not look elsewhere, and may never see and take this path, and will not even begin to ask the right questions.

If he simply and simplistically just want to have what everyone have in common, and just be like anybody, and be like sighted people, and make a so-called choice to learn about colours, and in desperation even deludes himself that he have learnt it, then he will never come this way, and will never truly learn that life is more than sight and sound and touch.

And he will also never discover his true destiny.

But if he is wise and knows that not all things can be changed or for your choosing, then he may discover a new road and a new way, perhaps, only something that he alone can and must walk.

Maybe he cannot walk it alone. And maybe there is someone waiting to walk with him. But then he is blind.

But if he does come this way - alone or with a partner - then all things are equal - for in a sense everyone is blind spiritually. And then the blind man is no longer any worst off from anyone sighted, and in fact may be even better off, for sight can be a great distraction and even a deceiver.

For things of the spirit are not seen but discerned spiritually without eyes.

And then the blind may truly see, and the sighted are the ones blind.

Red and Blue

Can a blind man see?

How many times must a blind man feel a red thing and a blue thing to learn to tell what is red and what is blue?

But one who sees, does not need to feel anything red or blue to know what is red and blue. Feel is irrelevant to knowing colours.

And he does not even need to see what is maroon or mauve or magenta, but just from someone's description of these, he may already be able to recognise them the first time, if he ever sees these colours.

But a blind man will go to his grave not knowing what is red or blue.

And worst he thinks he knows, and has learnt what is red and what is blue.

But the wise blind man knows that he cannot know and will not seek in futility to tell what is red and what is blue.

Ubuntu

It is always very uplifting for me when what I think, or what I know, is affirmed for me in unexpected ways, and without me seeking for it.

And one of these of late is ubuntu.

Of course I didnt know it by that name - its an African word - but to me I have known the same thing conceptually, for some time by now, and arrived at independent of any external influences, ie nothing from what I read, or hear, or what someone tells me, but entirely from internal construction from fundamental truths that I have accumulated.

And this is the analogy of the jigsaw puzzle.

Each of us, as an individual, on our own, is like a jigsaw puzzle, oddly shaped, strangely coloured, and entirely meaningless on its own. It is only when it is fitted with other similarly odd-shaped, and strange-coloured pieces, does it make sense why we are what we are. Then our oddness disappears, and all the colours make sense. And this apply too for every other piece to whom we are attached.

But just as our purpose and meaning hinged on being part of the big picture, the big picture in turn need every single piece to be in place and not missing. It may be a million piece jigsaw puzzle, but yet every single piece is equally and crucially significant. No piece is unnecessary or redundant. Without everyone fitted in place, there is no big picture.

So thats ubuntu for me: others define who you are, just as much as you define who they are. And Bill Clinton puts it, in what I think, equivalent terms, "I am because you are."

And there is an interesting parallel here: When Moses asked God what is His name, God said, "I am I am".