The Art of Seeing

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What are some words associated with seeing? Foresight, hindsight, far-sighted, near-sighted, insight, out of sight, lost sight, blindside, and blind spots.

Far-sighted is not being able to see near. (mostly old people go towards this.)
Near-sighted is not being able to see far. (mostly the young have this. Especially with all the gadgets and games playing and video-watching that people, young and old do, optometrists and opthalmologists have growing patients in the days to come!)

Being farsighted does not only refer to physical ability to see far. It also means foresight – having vision, planning, anticipation, prudence, care, caution, precaution, readiness, preparedness…ability to prepare for the future; BEFORE things happen. While farsighted mostly associated with the old, the young should / can also have this. People with foresight achieve; they live life with a purpose and a goal to achieve.

When I swim backstroke, what holds me back from swimming freely is that I might hit someone or hit the edge of the pool – especially in an irregular-shaped pool. So I often use the trees or the building as my sign posts that i’m nearing the edge. How I wish I have eyes at the top of my head… like hindsight?! Hindsight is the opposite of foresight. It is the recognition of the realities, possibilities, or requirements of a situation, event, decision etc., AFTER its occurrence. Even as we need foresight, we also need hindsight. It helps us to live life learning and not repeating mistakes of the past. Hindsight provides us with lessons to do better. With hindsight, we also need to discern what to hold on to and what to let go.

One time, after I finished swimming, I went into the building and asked about 4 people where the garden wing is. I remembered when I went to the pool, the exit was just across when I went out the elevator. How come when I returned, elevator was out of sight! What happened? I lost sight of the door where I came out of. I went thru another far from the one I exited. So round and round I go, I’m lost! Wrapped in a wet towel, with uncombed hair, the more I rushed to get to the elevator, the more lost I was! In life, one can easily get lost as well. When we forget where we started and we do many things in between, we somehow deviate far from our origin and we get lost. We lose sight of our initial goal and objective for the things that we do. Then we wonder how come we see a different scene from the one we initially envisioned.

There’s also the blind side: a direction in which a person has a poor view, typically of approaching danger. Blind spot is an area where a person’s view is obstructed. Both terms are closely associated to driving. As drivers, we need to beware of being blind-sided and avoid blind spots. In relationships, we also have our blind spots. Some things of ourselves we cannot see. We stick to our own point of view and we insist that ours is the best or even the only way there is.

Bottom line: Eyes are windows to the soul. While they reflect what’s inside a person, they also reflect outward to the way life is lived. Even as I aged physically with my near-sightedness disappearing into being far-sighted, let me develop foresight while not leaving behind hindsight. Let me beware of blind spots lest I be stagnant and selfish. Let me beware of losing sight of the meaning of life. Let me live with God by my side as He is the one who sees clearly – I am never out of His sight!

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