One of my favorite lines in any song is “Sometimes we’re blinded by the very thing we need to see.” It’s in ‘The Last Word’ by Mary Chapin Carpenter. She’s one of my all time favorite singer/songwriters. She never fails to bring real and raw meaning into the world with her poignant lyrics and powerful music. This song also happens to be on one of my all time favorite albums, Stones in the Road. If you haven’t ever listened to it, I really do believe you are missing one of the most perfect albums ever made.
My Blind Spots
Hearing those words made me start to look at my own blind spots, which is hard, since they don’t want to be seen. Actually, that isn’t true. The spot itself, as is shown in my drawing, is actually what we do see. We see it so big and bold that we don’t see beyond it. We don’t see what it’s hiding.
We can even be enamored of our own blind spots, as when we brag about our ignorance on a certain subject, or our lack of talent in some area, as if it is a badge of honor instead of something to pay attention to and move beyond.
What both the quote and the lyrics say to me is that you see what you want and need to see; infatuated love, the possibility of wealth, the dreams of fame for example, and seeing those things so big can blind you to seeing the emotional desperation, the selfish greed, or the empty loneliness that might come along with those things.
Desire
In other words, desire often begets blindness. So I try to ask myself as often as I can, what is it I am desiring here, and how is that changing, and perhaps warping, what it is I am paying attention to?
Many years ago I did a napkin drawing of the actual lyrics I mentioned above. Here it is. it is one of the earliest of the napkins drawn for the world instead of just for my daughters. it’s from 2009.
As luck would have it, one of my favorite songs is about luck!
It’s also about the ebb and flow of life, of fortune. You aren’t always on top, you aren’t always at the bottom. Knowing how to live within that ebb and flow, when to row, when to sail, when to seek harbor, when to ask for help, when to see others need help, all those are just as much a part of being successful in life as is money or other, more obvious things.
Check out the lyrics to the song ‘The Bug’ by Mary Chapin Carpenter. Listen to a piece and then download the song from iTunes. It’s on her ‘Come On, Come On’ album, 1992. It’s a great song to run to, by the way.
It is frustrating to hear a person talk about their low self-esteem, their feelings of inferiority all the while knowing that the only way to move past it is the one way they are not willing to take.
They have to step out, they need to attempt, to try, to pursue, to leap, to jump, to dive, to fly, to run, to love, to create, to build, to play, to meet, to greet, to talk, to write, to kiss, to touch, to bless, to work, to go, to swim, to do.
They do not need to figure out why they have low self-esteem first, before they act. They need to act, and act again and again and again.
My favorite song is ‘Jubilee’ by Mary Chapin-Carpenter. My favorite part in the song goes like this:
And I can tell by the way you’re talking
That the past isn’t letting you go
But there’s only so long you can take it all on
And then the wrong’s gotta be on its own
And when you’re ready to leave it behind you
You’ll look back, and all that you’ll see
Is the wreckage and rust that you left in the dust
On your way to the jubilee
You leave it behind you by moving, by acting, by doing. Go.
“While one person hesitates because they feel inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.” – Henry C. Link, dates unknown, American author, wrote ‘Return To Religion’, 1937
“Sometimes you’re blinded by the very thing you need to see.” – Mary Chapin Carpenter
I love this line from the song ‘The Last Word’ by Mary Chapin-Carpenter. What it really seems to say is that you see what you want to see; infatuated love, the possibility of wealth, the dreams of fame, and seeing those things blind you to seeing the emotional desperation, the selfish greed, or the empty loneliness that might come along with those things.
Desire often begets blindness. Where are your blind spots?
