The Blind Stick

The journey of the blind is quite fascinating, yet a hectic experience. According to Helen Keller, the only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. Life is a journey, and as humans, we need to enjoy the ride, from which the blind are not exempted. Apart from depending on their senses, the blind uses the “stick” to navigate directions as he or she journeys ahead. In the world of the blind, the stick has a major influence on his or her perception, touch, and movements. However, it is obvious to decipher how regrettable the blind may feel when his or her stick is being confiscated. Life becomes miserable and unbearable as the journey slows in unpredictable steps ahead.?

Even though majority of us are not visually impaired, we still have a stick we carry along as the blind. As humans, “education” is our stick to navigate our route in our journey through life.?I know this is a hard truth for some of us, but have we ever thought of how we are going to survive in this dynamic environment we live in? and yet understand our purpose in life and make an impact?

It is true that God emphasizes the need for us to be educated to gain adequate knowledge to understand His words and teachings (Hosea 4:6; 2 Timothy 2:15). Like a warrior in the battle field actively monitoring the moves of his opponents, a conscious mind is a prerequisite to sailing through life. It is quite unfortunate that some of us misconstrue the relevance of education. According to me, the sole relevance of education is to understand how our society operates and find ways to make the best out of it in life.

In poor resource settings like Africa, it is very difficult to rely on informal education to become fully equipped with this knowledge. Hence, we have to spend most of our time in school to help calibrate ourselves with the knowledge gap, and yet we are allowing ourselves to be blindfolded by the notion that school is irrelevant due to the fact that it couldn’t secure most of us better jobs after completion. It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion; that is satisfying and reassuring. To me, the important questions we need to ask ourselves are: do we really understand why we need to carry this stick as we journey through life? And how can we cope with life in all its essence without our stick??

Let’s not forget “a blind man knows he cannot see, and is glad to be led though by a stick or dog, but he that is blind in his understanding, which is the worst blindness of all, believes he sees as the best, and scorns a guide”_ Samuel Butler.?