Not sure this one counts as a quote, but since it happened again . . .

"Close your eyes, and picture . . ." are the words I heard until I tuned out of a very cliche and consequently boring illustration. Sadly, I have (once again) been asked to close my eyes and picture myself in a ridiculous situation or somehow retrieve an image of the most important thing in my life. Every time someone has made such a request, I have been lost to my own ponderings. First, I dislike such practices because they leave me more vulnerable than I prefer. Second, I wouldn't be able to visualize any better (when I close my eyes, I can never "see" anything). And third, when I close my eyes I do not care what I see - I care what I hear, smell, feel, and already know (most of all, what I know). Without my sight, I am left with understanding, and sight is no longer important.


So why ask? I suppose many people must close their eyes because this world is so distracting. Picturing a specific image is difficult when we are bombarded with the hundreds present in every room. When we close our eyes, our reality fades into the background and we become more aware of ourselves. But I still don't appreciate having to close my eyes to the hundreds of objects around me in order to remember or imagine one specific thing. When you ask me to close my eyes, you cater to my inability to focus. Concentration is a skill to be learned in every situation - not just the ones we so carefully contrive.




Why do you ask me to see with my eyes closed, when you should ask me to understand - even though my eyes are open?






Bonus quotation (or rather, one I do not believe I could post about, but love anyway): "Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise above the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself." - Walter Anderson