More Friendly, and More Social as a People

   Today I had an experience that made me think a little about how closed off and private we can sometimes be.  This morning I was driving up a little north of Heber to measure up a bid for my dad's business.  The husband and wife, who's driveway I was measuring for new asphalt, were a friendly couple from England. They were very easy to talk to, and joke around with.  There seemed to be no barriers between us being instant friends.  They could joke around with me, and I could ask them all about their lives as if we already knew each other.

   I wonder why that is, what about them made it so easy for me to talk to them.  I feel like that is how it should be at church, but I can say that it definitely isn't, at least for me.  I know a lot of that has to do with how I view others, but it is still something I think worth thinking about.  The husband and I chatted for a while, and our conversation drifted from how he came from England to Heber Utah, the LDS church and it's missionaries, the differences in why people go to the pub in England versus here in the States, etc.

   It was a really interesting conversation, and he was eager to meet his neighbors and be sociable.  He even invited me back any time I wanted to come by.  I am not even sure what I'm getting at here, but something about his attitude just made me feel so laid back and welcome.

   In the LDS faith, we believe that the gospel needs to be preached throughout the world, but sometimes I think we group together so much that we find it hard to branch out and just be warm and friendly with everyone.  Even within the church, within wards and stakes, I observe in myself and generally in others, a lack of desire/effort/whatever, to be friendly and outgoing towards everyone.

   I know the opposition that divides us, and it's more heated than ever in the world today.  I wish we could figure out, human beings as a whole, how to show that friendly disposition towards everyone.  This opposition is most prevalent in religion and politics.  Those are the two things "you aren't supposed to talk about." right? I personally think that is ridiculous.  That attitude is what causes us to be so judgmental and divided on the subject in the first place.  If we could learn to accept differences in others, and not stereotype others because of the few (for example, terrorists and muslims), we would go so far in the direction of unity and peace. I personally feel like truth would spread much faster to all people if I was more accepting of others and their beliefs, rather than focusing on how they're wrong.

   I realize that that much of what I've written here could be seen as an expression of my own personal short-fallings, and desires to improve.  It is :) I feel like many of us, especially in the church, could use a little bit of out-going juice to liven us up a bit.  The more we make new friends, and meet new people, the more enriched our lives will be, and the more opportunities we have to learn, grow, and help others to do the same.

sight vs. sound

These are my thoughts after reading the first few chapters of a book called I See a Voice by Jonathan Rée.

“My eyes were uncompromising materialists, and I was their loyal disciple.”

This quote has opened up a whole can of worms in my mind, and the bare-bones concept that it has brought up in my mind is that out of the 5 senses, sight is the great unequalizer.

How would the concept and expression of pride change if we couldn’t see?  Would there be a greater degree of humility? Or would pride just show up in a different form?

What sense do we blame racism on? Sight provides us with the shallowness with which we interact with the rest of the world.  Who would care if you were beautiful or if your body was the right size if we couldn’t see? Would there be a concept of beautiful? I think that there would be, but it would hopefully be based on more important and truly beautiful characteristics.

 If, during the colonization of the Americas, black people were placed on equal footing with white people, there would have been no need for a civil rights movement.  Stereotypes, if they existed, would not resemble what they are today.  American subcultures would be quite different from what they are today.  In my mind I see there being many less walls separating us into groups and cliques. 

For some reason we feel like we need to be different from others, to be unique.  What if we all were blind? Would we begin to speak differently, or even make strange abnormal sounds so that we could still be unique? That sounds absurd, but think about some of the fashions that we see in the world; people trying to be different.  Would there be a certain way of speaking whereby people could still find status over others?  Obviously fashion would be out the window, or at least the concept would be quite different from how we see it today.

If we were all to suddenly go blind, we would begin to see more accurately people as they really are.  What would happen to the dating scene?  Let’s take a look at all forms of relationships for that matter.  I have conversations with my friends about how at the bottom line, it just doesn't work if you’re not attracted to the other person. There are even quotes from prophets of the Church that say it is necessary for you to be physically attracted to the person you marry. So what if we were all blind? Would personalities match up more naturally, and a greater number of strong marriages be formed? As the phrase goes in The Little Prince, "One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes."

I am not trying to say that sight is evil, for it is a wonderful blessing that allows us to appreciate God’s creations and function on a much higher level of efficiency and productivity than we otherwise would be able to. But after putting a little thought into it (not enough, these are still incomplete fragmented thoughts), I believe that more than any other sense, Satan has twisted the gift of sight to evil purposes.  You would think that if we all were blind that we would be much less social, but would we?  As we walk across campus at school, don’t we make initial judgments on who we will associate with (or wish we had the guts to talk to), to some extent, immediately when we first see them?

Blindness would cause us to view people by what they say and do, whereas now, no matter what we say and do, we are initially labeled based on how we dress, facial/body features/irregularities/deformities, etc.  I think about funny little examples from my childhood. When I was in elementary school, I got made fun of for having a rather large head. To make things worse, my forehead was quite shiny!  This might seem trivial, but to 9 year old, having these things consistently brought to my attention had its effect.  I wonder what it would have been like growing up without those factors.  I wonder what it would be like for kids who have it much worse.

As I think about it, part of me says that people are who they are, and there are usually a certain percentage who are going to see the good in others, whether they can see or not, and treat them that way.  And likewise, there are going to be people who feel the need to find ways to “elevate” themselves above others.  Another part of me wonders it might just make a difference if we could see people the right way.

I wonder how materialistic our society would be if sight were not a factor. What importance would we place on “things”? Clothes would definitely play a different role than they do now. What would become fashionable? The texture of your clothing? I imagine that colognes and perfumes would play a greater role, not that they don’t as it is. Of course music is a huge part of our lives, but if I were blind I think that it would play an even greater role in my life. 

Speaking of sound, I want to switch gears a little bit. The gift of sight has, in many ways, been twisted to divide us, and draw us apart.  Sound, on the other hand, has in history, been known to break down those barriers that sight constructed.  In the roaring 20’s, almost everywhere across the nation, blacks and other minority groups continued to suffer discrimination. The Klu Klux Klan made a revival and grew tremendously, and in general ethnic minorities were not accepted in white circles. However, in the midst of this time of distasteful discrimination, a miracle happened in the form of music.

The Harlem Renaissance, with the invention of jazz, seemed to do what the social climate wouldn’t otherwise allow, which was to bring people, both black and white, together.  Music seemed to help them to see more clearly.  Now I will be the first to say that I don’t know much about history. I learned about this in an American History class that I was working in the other day. But it struck me as significant, when at the same time I had just started reading I See A Voice.

To be fair to sight, it has done a great deal of good along with the bad. I’m sure seeing the devastation going on around the world has caused many a person to pull out their wallets and donate to the relief of poor suffering people. Many people, myself included, has seen a movie, or observed a painting, and been moved to be a better person.

Also, there has been much in sound that has been degrading, whether it has been in the music world, or simply in the language we use to converse with each other.  While there have been speeches by people such as Abraham Lincoln, that when heard by the masses, have caused them to feel a sense of union with their bretheren of other races, there have also been speeches that incite hatred and disunity. But I feel like those of the latter have been simply to fix the mind on those visible differences that they wish for others to hate.

I do love my eyes, and it would be very difficult to live without them (or so I believe). I’m grateful for sound, for music that has inspired me, and the ability to hear the wonders of nature. I hope now that I have identified a handful of problems and pitfalls that can come with sight, I can work on avoiding those, and seeing the good in everyone. While I don’t feel weakness in the area of racism, I am quite quick to judge based on my initial perception, which is actually something I want to write about later.

Hopefully, if anybody reads this, you find it at least somewhat interesting. I’ve enjoyed thinking about it, and expanding my thoughts a little on the subject.