Anne Dilliard speaks about the problems that people with cataracts had just after they were removed and they could see. Some were overwhelmed and couldn't cope with the new sensory inputs. One little girl was happiest walking around with her eyes closed. Others tried to reteach themselves how to live and see. While we look around and automatically perceive depth and that people can see us when we can't see them, they had trouble with that and had to teach themselves about it. What we see as 3d, they saw as flat with dark patches instead of shading because of the light. They also could see the beauty of the world with fresh eyes though. The things we see and take for granted, they saw and stared in awe. They see differently.
When Dilliard mentioned how nature reveals itself at random to those who are watching closely, it resonated in me. I remembered how in fourth grade when we were studying insects, our teacher had an expert come in and speak to us. He told us that the best way to see insects around us is to stop, be quiet, and just watch. The things that our eyes just skim over or we frighten away with our movements will slowly start to become more clear until we are seeing them all around us. We can enjoy it then. We listened to his advice at much as we could as fourth graders and we did indeed see many insects and caught a lot of them as pets.
A few weeks before I returned to college, I was in the car with my dad and my little brother, Andrew, on the way to lunch. As we drove, my dad and the car in front of us suddenly slammed on his breaks. Before our eyes, a black bear not much past the cub stage ran across the road in front of us. Living where we do, not much is often seen beyond deer and rabbits. To see the black bear was a gift for us that we could easily have missed if we weren't paying attention.
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