+++On the other hand, ambiguous is basically what any number of people are in regard to encompassing what ambiguous means. As for most sighted people, I suspect that when they first learned of others being blind...found out they could not see...they probably closed their eyes and figured that must be what it's like.+++
I suppose that's a natural reaction.
+++One thing that many do equate with nothing is death. Nothingness some call it. So, one way or another, we all have that to contend with. However, the problem here is that there are many, many, many spiritual paths one can choose from in order to make that part go away. And "here and now" none have actually been demonstrated to my own satisfaction. And of late I've been particular interested in finding one that does.+++
Perhaps death is indeed nothingness, but at the very least, we know that upon death, we become part of the earth again, and part of the endless cycle of life. Unless you have your ashes blasted into space, or something, which is a very bad idea, in my opinion.
+++Well, here, it would seem to come down to dealing with the hand you've been dealt by nature.
As for spooky, the more some of us stick around, the spookier it all begins to appear. Existence itself has often been a surreal experience for me. Then this part:
https://medium.com/@startuplab/the-odds ... 096c84ac2a
"I’ll repeat the title because it really is a staggering statistic! The likelihood of you being born is 1 in 400 trillion.
To put this in perspective, the odds of winning the lottery is 1 in 300 million. So just the odds of you being here is equivalent to winning the lottery not once, not ten times, but over a million times! (1.33 million to be exact). If you’re reading this, you’re already very, very, lucky."
Another assessment:
"To be born, every single person in your ancestral line, from your parents all the way back to the very first humans, would have needed to meet and procreate with each other, meaning every single one of your ancestors, from both your mother's and father's side, would have had to have met and reproduced for you to exist; this includes all the individuals involved in their respective family lines as well."
So, fit being blind or being sighted into that somewhere.+++
Yes, we are all extremely lucky to be alive. So let's make the most of it, here and now, while we can.
+++This just popped into my head: "What about songs that revolve around or include blindness in the lyrics?":
https://www.ranker.com/list/best-songs- ... /reference
It's called "90+ Songs About Being Blind, Ranked" but actually sometimes that's the case and sometimes it's not. Or so it seemed to me. Sometimes "being blind" is a metaphor for any number of things.+++
As you say, most songs that mention blindness are using it as a metaphor. That list you posted mentions Pinball Wizard, which is indeed about a "deaf, dumb and blind kid" though I'm not sure how accurate a representation it is of actual deafblind pinball players. And then there's that Lionel Ritchie song, Hello, which is widely mocked and derided in the blind community. I don't think it's too bad though, to be honest, though as far as I can tell, it's not even about blindness at all. I've also heard that Elton John's Daniel is about a Vietnam veteran returning home having been blinded in the war, but I don't know how true that is.
+++I'm just attempting to wrap my head around something a part of me will almost certainly never actually be able to. I grasp that you are comfortable -- really comfortable -- in your own skin and that you live life largely on your own terms. A fulfilling and satisfying life. An independent life. But there it is: how scary being blind still seems to me. It's just hard for some sighted people to go beyond that. Maybe they pray for you and figure once they get you on the right One True Path -- their own -- not only will you be saved but surely your soul in Heaven will see God in all His glory. Plus, some might suggest, He's there to explain to you why He choose you to be born blind in the first place.+++
It's not scary to me because I'm used to it. It's just normal. I can certainly understand why people are scared of the idea of losing their sight, though. It must be a very traumatic experience, and one, thankfully, that I'll never have to go through.
+++Okay, back to "spooky" it is then. Me trying to imagine your world, you trying to imagine mine. And then [of course] the part where people try to pin down how the blind and the sighted ought to think about each other.+++
I'm not sure saying that people "ought" to think one way or the other is the best way of putting it.
+++Yes, as I recall, he mentioned entering a room that had become awash in sunlight. This he can, what, sense? But you...nothing?+++
Yes, that's right. I don't have any light perception.
+++Here's the dream video:
https://youtu.be/XpUW9pm9wxs?si=I9XxZPcnrAu7TiYB
He tried to sum up his own experiences with dreams this way, "...just like you guys, weird things happen my dreams...;'so, here I am, it's the bottom of the ninth, runners on second and third, two men away...and all of a sudden, it's my seventh birthday party'".
In the video we have sound effects...the sounds of a baseball game and the sounds of a child's birthday party. And, sure, in both cases I can imagine all sorts of cues enabling one who is blind to enjoy baseball or a birthday party. But, again, by far, in my own dreams, it's what I see that allows me to more clearly grasp what is going on. My dreams are something I really look forward to because, well, they are often amazing. The relationships -- intellectual, emotional, social, sexual -- I have in my dreams [often recurring] bring me back to "experiences" that are largely beyond my reach now "in reality".+++
I think the post important things about dreams are there emotional content, or emotional signature, even. That's why whenever we try and describe them in words, they almost always sound trivial, because we are not describing the most important part about them. I don't remember, for example, ever having a recurring dream, by which I mean a repeating sequence of specific events, but I've definitely had dreams that have the same emotional signature, as it were, to other dreams, and seem to follow on from them, in some way, with similar settings. Also, the settings themselves are usually real places, though in the dreams they might be nothing much like the actual real places, but somehow you just know that that's where they're meant to be. And being slightly claustrophobic, some of my dreams involve odd spaces, enclosed tunnels for example, with steps leading down then suddenly ending in a void. That's one set, anyway, but another set is completely different, involving me travelling a long distance, often, though not always, by walking, searching for something and/or someone. These usually take place in real locations, though in the dreams they are often quite different to real life. I usually wake up before finding whatever it is, though not always. Another set involves school, but I suppose that's pretty standard.
+++I suspect then that I will go to the grave just as perplexed as I am now.+++
I think there are probably just some things that are impossible to imagine.
+++Here it probably comes down to what it is that childfren actually tell their parents...
"Mom and Dad, I'm a Communist."
"Mom and Dad, I'm a Nazi."
"Mom and Dad, I'm a heroin addict."
"Mom and Dad, I'm a serial killer."
"Mom and Dad, I'm a moral nihilist"+++
Or how about the worst social crime that anyone can commit, Mom and Dad, I'm a normal person.
+++That's the part that will sometimes fascinate me and sometimes exasperate me. On the one hand, it's not like religious/spiritual denominations that demand total obedience in regard to, well, practically every thing they pass judgment on...what you wear, what you drink, what you think and feel, who you sleep with, how you raise your children, etc.
On the other hand, some will note, how seriously can you take a spiritual path that basically leaves these things entirely up to the individual? Here, though, what becomes crucial for me is the part regarding immortality and salvation. Once they become a part of the narrative, there's a tendency to be more exacting in regard to what is permissible and what is not.+++
That's why I'm always reluctant to describe Paganism as a religion. There are religions within it, but also things that don't really fit that definition very well.
+++Just out of curiosity, have you ever been rejected or shunned or punished within any of these communities because you didn't toe the "party line"?+++
No, never. I'm still very good friends with the coven members, for example, even though I chose to leave it.
+++"Divination (from Latin divinare 'to foresee, foretell, predict, prophesy, etc.') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a querent should proceed by reading signs, events, or omens, or through alleged contact or interaction with supernatural agencies such as spirits, gods, god-like-beings or the "will of the universe".
Here, again, for those who believe this all I can do is to note the distinction I make between 1] what is mainly believed in the collective minds of the community and 2] what is actually able to be demonstrated as in fact true. Nothing else makes sense to me. And to the extent some reject the part about evidence is the extent to which, in my opinion, they are embracing these Divine rituals and ceremonies because it comforts them and consoles them. After all, the whole point of rituals and ceremonies is to make certain behaviors...sacred? necessary? You wouldn't do the same things over and over and over and over and over and over again if you didn't believe it was required of you. But to the extent particular Pagans embody a kind of "cafeteria faith", sure, I can understand that. I'd do it myself if I was able to.
Human psychology, bursting at the seams with defense mechanisms, can often come up with ways to rationalize -- that's one right there -- almost any behavior.+++
Pagans do, indeed, seem to love their divination, especially tarot and runes. I never found them either useful or interesting. You can even get Braille tarot, but I was never interested enough to bother.
https://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/braille-spanish/
I did try runes a few times, since they're usually inscribed on pieces of wood or clay, but again, they didn't do anything for me.
+++Ice cream is one thing, some will point out, and blindness another thing altogether. I was discussing this with Rebecca, a virtual friend of mind from way, way back, at another forum. She said what would probably frighten her the most about being blind is that, in the end, as independent as she might make her own life, there's always the part where one way or another her life changes dramatically and things get "beyond her control". That can be hard enough even with all five senses. Then the part where, without vision, in particular contexts, you can never really be sure of how people are reacting to you. On the other hand, out of sight, out of mind?+++
Can sighted people ever really be sure about how people are reacting to them?
+++Well, as long as you are comforatble and content with the way things are now in your life -- and your posts pretty much confirm this -- that's pretty much as far as it need go. On the other hand, there's nothing quite like falling in love, being in love, holding the one you love in your arms, falling asleep in their arms and waking up beside them in the morning.+++
I agree.
+++That's often the best way to pursue commitments. In other words, for all practical purposes. And in always accepting that all things -- the good, the bad and the ugly -- must pass.+++
Yes, very much so.
+++Oh, yeah. But the human condition has always been bursting at the seams with opportunities to be pathetic, right? Or right up there next to it. It's just that we tend to view others as being pathetic for doing things that they might not deem to be pathetic at all. Instead, they are likely see others as the truly pathetic ones.+++
I suppose I sometimes have a low tolerance for things like that.
+++Reminds me of a scene from Against All Odds
"Terry: Hey, Jesus, I love you! You've become everything I'm about. Don't you understand that?
Jessie [overwhelmed]: Can't anyone love me without it being life or death to them?
Terry: You know most people are afraid they're never going to be loved like that."
It's one thing to be loved, and another thing altogether to be loved passionately.
I've only been in love passionately once myself. So, I should know, right?
0f course, what heterosexual man isn't going to fall in love with Rachel Ward? I've fallen in love with her myself many, many times. But then what to make of "looks" in romantic relationships.
For example, that scene from Mask where Diana [who is blind] comes to meet [and really like] Rocky. What she can't see, however, is how "deformed" his face is. But her sighted parents see that immediately and suddenly [as I recall] that's the end of that.
And though you can't see how you look yourself, all the sighted men can. And in the sighted world being attractive can sometimes be a blessing and sometimes a curse.+++
Mostly a blessing though, I suspect.
