Upon having been asked, “What could possibly be worse than being blind, the immortal Helen Keller is said to have replied: “Having sight but no vision.”
The keen insight of this astounding individual continues to serve as a beacon since and will continue to do so. How unfortunate that so many of us with visual sight to see things as they are have absolutely no perception of how things could or should be or of what we could possibly do to effect change, individually and/or collectively. We each have become so tightly wrapped in our own insecurity blankets we’ve become totally oblivious to the hurt and/or potential fears of others. The solution is not isolation but dedication–to such individuals and causes that promote unity through diversity (and not uniformity); to promote self-esteem and to fostering respect for the differences in others whether physical, racial, cultural, political, religious or other.
We all are aware of some beautiful soul(s) who may live a lonely life because those about them are too caught up into following the seemingly more exciting and attractive crowd.
Most are too young today to remember the once popular song. “Lean on me…We all need somebody to lean on…” According to the philosophy of Helen Keller, however, such a person only deceives and weakens you.
Another tune by once Soul Train host Don Cornelius reminded us: “From love’s infrequent eerie height, there is no Black, there is no White.” From such heights also there is no short, there is no tall; no young nor old, no slim nor fat nor any other distinguishable national, religious or political distinction.
I usually equate such neutrality to being seated in an aircraft while still on the runway awaiting take-off where you watch people of all shapes, ages, sizes, races and religions boarding and/or attending to various associated duties. Once the plane taxies down the runway and takes off into space, however, everything on the ground–all of the trivialities on which we base our multiple prejudices–become less distinguishable with altitude as the plane continues to climb. How very similar this is to spirituality when likewise all things on which we base our multiple prejudices become indistinguishable as we gain spiritual altitude.
Should we find ourselves more closely related to the psychological things within society that reinforce the multiple barriers we have erected to divide us, rather than with the more predominant physical and spiritual things that unite us, then our spiritual plane is either flying too low or has never left the runway.
God unites! Man divides! Only through spiritual altitude will these man-made divisions ever become indistinguishable and/or extinct!
