What To Do

A man we shall call “Roger” underwent major surgery after several years of blindness. The operation was a success to the extent that he could now see with the help of heavy lenses. When he arrived home from the hospital, he immediately set out to fulfill a longtime ambition: to stroll alone through the neighborhood. But after walking for just a few minutes he rushed back to the house, threw himself on his bed and buried his face in a pillow. His concerned wife asked what had gone wrong. He replied, “I couldn’t take anymore. The light hurt my eyes but it wasn’t that so much as the beauty. There was so much beauty that I could not take it all in a single dose: human forms; children’s faces; faces of old people, wise with the experience of the years; trees and flowers and birds and clouds and the sky. I couldn’t stand anymore. I couldn’t absorb so much light and so much beauty.”