Blindness... a gift?

Response to “Blindness”

                Very few people would see blindness as a good thing. Even fewer would say that it is a gift. Jorge Luis Borges thinks that his blindness was a gift. Through his blindness his eyes were opened to forms of literature he had not explored before. The irony of it all is that when he first began losing his sight he had recently begun working in a library. He found that he could not read the titles of the books off of their spines. Borges apparently (he doesn’t explain this in great detail) had to have others read to him. I myself would hate being blind. I love to look at art and see films. I cannot for the life of me understand how Borges could come to the conclusion that his blindness was a gift. Sure he ended up exploring other forms of literature that he had not before but at what cost? He said he was only about three-quarters blind and could still see a few colors. How can that be a gift? Perhaps if I was an optimist I could understand his reasoning. But I’m not so this piece has left me a bit confused. I see that he is trying to make the best of it, and he even cites other authors that also went blind. But to be a lover of reading and then to have that ability impaired would be awful. Sure people could read to him but that’s not quite the same.