The Vision We Don't See...

A few weeks ago, I had a conversation that changed the way I see the world—ironically, with someone who can’t see it at all. After almost 30 years, I reconnected with my cousin. She was born premature, fragile enough to fit in the palm of a hand, with a prognosis that predicted lifelong challenges, particularly with her vision. Over the years, her eyesight slowly faded, and she now navigates the world completely blind.

We’d never really had a personal conversation before, but this time, we dove deep. I had so many questions—ones that most of us with sight might never think to ask. How does she experience the world? How does she manage everyday tasks? And what surprised me most was her answer: through an incredible combination of heightened senses, mental mapping, and imagination, she sees life more vividly than most people I know.

She shared how she mentally maps the routes she travels so well that she’s even corrected her driver when they missed a familiar turn. She listens to Netflix narrations, building scenes in her mind from sounds and descriptions. She even participates in sports designed for the blind, embracing life fully without the gift—or burden—of sight.

Hearing her stories made me reflect on what it means to see. For many of us, sight can be as much a limitation as a gift. We make decisions swayed by appearances—often forgetting to look deeper. We choose the shiny car, the beautiful house, or even a partner based on how they appear to us or to others, overlooking what lies beneath the surface. Sight can be a filter that skews reality, leading us to miss the essential qualities that truly matter.

Our reliance on vision also affects how we judge others, sometimes unfairly. Racial biases, for instance, are often fueled by visual assumptions. Comparisons—fueled by what we see on social media, in our neighbors' homes, or in our friends' lives—can lead us to measure our worth against superficial standards, robbing us of joy.

But my cousin’s life offers a powerful lesson: without the ability to see, she’s cultivated an intuitive, imaginative, and richly detailed understanding of the world around her. She knows her way around not because she can see the road but because she’s created a mental map that guides her. She understands people not by appearance but by how they treat her. In many ways, she’s freer than we are, liberated from the distractions of sight that often lead us astray.

This conversation with my cousin left me profoundly grateful and humbled. It reminded me that the greatest insights often come when we look past the obvious and connect on a deeper level. Let’s not take our senses for granted, nor let them define our reality. Sometimes, the things we can't see are the very things that matter most.

Moral of the story: True vision goes beyond sight.

-Gamal Harding

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