Close Your Eyes, See The World

​I watched a news story last night about a college student, blind since birth, doing color commentary for an NBA G league team in Delaware. This young man can't see a thing, but relays the action to fans listening in on the radio as if he doesn't miss a thing.

When asked how he does it, he said he listens. Listens to the direction the ball bounces up and down the court. Listens to which side of the rim it hits when a player misses a shot. Listens for the swish of a shot made. He said he listens to the refs and the players and the crowd reactions. He listens to it all.

He sees the game through the sounds it produces.

It got me wondering if maybe sometimes we should close our eyes more. Maybe there are times we are more equipped to see what's going on in the world around us when we can't actually see what's going on in the world around us.

Maybe we would be better off in some conversations closing our eyes, having nowhere to go other than toward the words of the person across from us who longs for nothing more than those words to be heard by the person across from them.

Maybe on a morning walk, stop and sit on a bench, close your eyes and listen to the world. I think there are times the world is trying to tell us things that we miss while trying to see all that we think the world is begging us to see.

I didn't finish watching this news piece and find myself longing to be blind. But I did find myself wondering if this young man, in his blindness, might at times see things in the world that I, full of sight, often miss.

I found myself wondering if the way to gain a better understanding of the world at times, if the way to better know the people around me, is to simply close my eyes and listen.

It's worked miracles in one young man's life.

Close your eyes....