Eyes to See

Remember how, in the movie The Village, the elders let the blind girl go outside the village to get the medicine for the boy she loved. It was allowed not because she was the most devoted, the most insistent, persistent, or courageous; it was permitted because she WAS blind... blind to any seduction of the outside world. The villagers, at least the founders, were so hurt by the outside world that they were willing to construct a lie, albeit a "harmless" one, to keep their children from daring to venture forth. And they felt that she, being the blind one, would be unable to see what was beyond the woods.

I can think about this for days, this twisted logic that says a well-intentioned lie is better than the truth of the "real" world, that lying to protect someone is not really wrong, that the only recourse we have against the hurt and ugliness of the world is to withdraw from it. Like I said, I can meditate on this endlessly.

But the poignancy is that they allowed the blind girl to stumble through the forbidden woods to seek help from outside the village because she couldn't see the "truth" and bring it back. As we know from the story, things got out of hand and the system broke down under the weight of it's own deceit.

I belong to a group of believers that think that the only recourse we have against the pain and ugliness of this world is to be more involved in it, not less. This is accomplished by not separating or isolating but by embracing our culture and society, redeeming not rejecting it. That is a tough calling that requires constant vigilance: to be workers, not watchers of culture. Watchers are the ones who sit in the towers calling out when the evil thing is approaching. Workers are the ones that are in the woods doing things to make it healthier and safer for themselves and others to follow.

I hope I'm a worker, not a watcher.