The way we see things tend to massively affect our lives especially our behaviour and interaction with one another may it be in real life or in the internet. People are usually impressed depending on how we perceive our fellowmen. So, we usually choose to impress others publicly with kind gestures, interesting stories, newly bought stuff, catchy captions and remarkable achievements just to be more friendly, relatable and be part of the popular, successful or #blessed tribe. Be that as it may, this is the norm around the world today specifically for the online generation and I am part of it.  However, out of my own curiosity,  let us ask ourselves the following questions: What if all of us lost our vision? How can we applaud the things we see in our neighbour? On the news? On social media? How would that affect they way we see ourselves? How do we survive?

I came across a blog written by Deb Sofield, an author, media coach and a crisis communication speaker, where she gave her thoughts about the words of Boona Mohammed, a Canadian spoken word poet.

“If the whole word was blind, how many people would you impress?” – Boona Mohammed

In Deb’s reflection, she placed emphasis on two things which gave clarity and sense on the statement and more thoughts for me to ponder.

1. Most of us are living a double life by not properly aligning our own words and actions. We impress others thru things we don’t actually practice. Moreover, she boldly wrote, “We all lament the crisis of conscience these days in other people, but what about in ourselves.”  I like how she simply nudge on the idea that we have to be mindful of our ability to influence others with our words and actions because, in a sense, we are all visually impaired or willing to over look ourselves and the words and actions of our friends and family.
2. Degrading ourselves with words that will consume us with self pity, doubt and all kinds of negativity will eventually beat our self- esteem. In other words, she in encouraging us to be kinder to ourselves. I think she is indirectly saying that we need to impress ourselves more than others especially when we get over or survive a difficult hurdle in our lives. 

In the other side of the spectrum, physical blindness can be a catastrophic event if suddenly it becomes a global concern. Personally, I will be in shock and will probably adjust in a few days or even months if I lost my eyesight. It can be really scary because things will never be the same again. We can’t use computers, book flights, explore our surroundings, visually identify our friends and family, enjoy wonderful sceneries and a whole lot more. To add more fear, more people will die because hospitals won’t be a safe place, surgeries and disease treatment can be difficult, mortality rate will increase from untreated ailments, crimes, accidents and psychological trauma. To put it simply, our survival chance to live on earth is slimmer than usual. It is like living in the movie Bird Box. For sure, impressing others won’t be an issue but a matter of survival. But what if it happens and becomes the “new normal” – everybody is blind and we are adjusting to it. Losing one of the 5 senses can bring out the best and worst from us if we think about it. Maybe we will have clusters of people joined together to help one another and live a day at a time. Other senses might be used more than usual or maybe people will be kinder to each other.  Surely, if the world is physically blind, we can impress each other by being kind to one another. 

“Kindness is the language the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” – Mark Twain

As a Roman Catholic Christian, this quote from Mark Twain made me realise that the world has impaired our eyesight at some point in our lives… I call it Spiritual Blindness. We lose our faith to God and focus more on world stuff like work, instagram and facebook likes as well other forms of social media, our businesses, love interests, family drama, admired friends and toxic relationships and so much more. I am guilty of being spiritually blind especially when I came here in the UK. I was away from my wife and family and I wasn’t careful about how other people influenced or affected me and vice versa. Nevertheless, God has a way of helping us open our eyes and lift us from the pit of darkness. I am in a point where he is starting to show me what is essential… What really matters in my life. Last year, when I was very scared and been obsessed with noxious thoughts, I called for help and Jesus answered.  

Like the blind man in bible, He is also slowly restoring my spiritual eyesight. I can’t see Him but He is constantly there to help and heal my wounds. That, my friends, is VERY IMPRESSIVE. 

By and large, impressing others without the sense of sight is not really important if that makes sense but surviving the blindness is the utmost concern and it should be handled by being careful with our words, thoughts and actions. We need to be kind to others and most importantly to ourselves. There are all sorts of blindness in our everyday lives.. insults, cyber bullying, harsh words, poverty, indifference, self entitlement, envy, lust, greed and a whole lot more. As a personal testament based from my own experience, Jesus can heal a blind man. I am a work in progress. He is constantly healing me. 

Luke 18: 40-42 

Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. 

When he came near, Jesus asked him,

 “What do you want me to do?”

“Lord, I want to see.” he replied.

Jesus said to him,”Receive your sight, your faith has healed you.