Three days to see full chapter - Helen Keller

Three Days to See by Helen Keller

I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being was stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound.

Now and then I have tested my seeing friends to discover what they see. Recently I asked a friend, who had just returned from a long walk in the woods, what she had observed, “Nothing in particular,” she Replied

How was it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy of note? I, Who cannot see, find hundereds of things to intrest me through mere touch. I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf. I pass my hands livingly about the soomth skin of a silver birch, or the rough, shaggy bark of a pine. In spring I touch the breches of trees hopefully in search of a bud, the first sign of awakening Nature after her winter’s sleep. Occasionally, if i am very fortunate, I place my hand gently on a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song.

At times my heart cries out with longing to see all these things. If I can get so much pleasure from mere touch, how much more beauty must be revealed by sight and I have imagined what I should most like to see If I were given the use of my eyes, say just three days….

I should divide the period into three parts. On the first day, I should want to see the people whose kindness and gentleness and companionship have made my life worth living. Frist I should like to gaze long upon the face of my dear teacher, Mrs. Anne Sullivan Macy. She came to me when I was a child She opened the outer World to me I should want to see the outline of her face, so that I could cherish it in my memory. I want to study the face and find it the living evidence of the sympathetic tenderness and patience with which she accomplished the difficult task of my education I should like to see in her eyes that strength of character which has enabled her to stand firm in the face of difficulties. I should also want to see that Compassion for all humanity which she has revealed to me often.

Oh, the things that I should see if I had the power of sight for three days!

The first day would be a busy one I should call to me all my dear friends and look long into their faces, imprinting upon my mind the outward evidence of the beauty that is within them. I should let my eyes rest too, on the face of a baby so that I could catch vision of the the eager, innocent beauty which precedes the individual’s consciousness of the conflicts which life develop

And I should like to look into the the loyal, trusting eyes of my dogs – the grave, canny little Scottie, Darkie, and the stalwart, understanding Great Dane, Helga, Whose warm tender and playful friendships are so comforting to me.

On that busy first day I should also view the small simple things of my home. I want to see the warm colors in the rugs under my feet, the pictures on the wall, the intimate trifles that transform a house into a home. My eyes would rest respectfully on the books in raised type which I have read, but they would be more eagerly interested in the printed books which seeing people can read 

In the afternoon of that first seeing day, I should like a long walk in the woods and intoxicate my eyes on the beauties of the world of Nature, try desperately to absorb in a few hours the vast splendour which is constantly unfolding itself to those who can see. On the way from my woodland jaunt my path would lie near a farm so that I might see the patient horses ploughing the field (perhaps I should see only a tractor) and serene content of men living close to the soil and it should pray for the glory of a colourful sunset...

The next day – the second day of sight I should arise with the dawn and see the thrilling miracle by which night is transformed into day. I should behold with awe the magnificent panorama of light with which the sun awakens the sleeping earth.

This day I should devote to a hasty glimpse of the world , past and present. I should want to see the pageant of man’s progress, the kaleidoscope of the ages. How can so much be compressed into one day?

So on this my second day of sight I should try to probe into the soul of man through his art. The things I knew through touch I should now see. Oh, there is so much rich meaning and beauty in the art of the ages for you who have eyes to see! …

The evening of my second day of sight I should spend at the theatre or at the movie Even now I often attend theatrical performances of all sorts, but the action of the play must be spelled into my hands by a companion. But how I should like to see with my own eyes the fascinating figure of Hamlet, or the gusty Falstaff amid colorful Elizabethan trappings!..

The following morning I should again greet the dawn anxious to discover new delights. For I am sure that, for those who have eyes which really see. The dawn of each day must be perpetually new revelation of beauty

This according to the terms of my imagined miracle, is to be my third and last day of sight today I shall spend in the workaday world of the present, amid haunts of men going about the business of life. And where can one find so many activates and conditions of men as in New York? So the city becomes my destination.

I look ahead, and before me rise the fantastic towers of New York, a city that seems to have stepped from the pages of a fairy story. What an awe-inspiring sight these glittering spires; these vast banks of stone and steel structures such as the gods might build for themselves…

Now I begin my rounds of the city first I stand at a busty corner, merely looking at people trying by sight of them to understand something of their lives. I see smiles, and I am happy I see serious determination, and I am proud. I see suffering, and I am compassionate….

My third day of sight is drawing to end. Perhaps there are many serious pursuits to which I should devote the few remaining hours but I am afraid on the evening of that last day I should again run away to the theatre, to hilariously funny play, so that I might appreciate the overtures of comedy in the human spirit.

At midnight my temporary respite from blindness would cease, and permanent might would close in on me again. Naturally in those three days I should not have seen all I wanted to see. Only when darkness had again descended upon me should I realize how much I had left unseen….

I who am blind can give one hint to those who see – one admonition to those who would  make full use of the gift of sight; use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind. And the same method can be applied to the other senses. Hear the music of voices. The song of a bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow. Touch each object you want to touch as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail, smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel as if tomorrow you could fover smell and taste again. Make the most of every sense, glory in all the facets of pleasure and beauty which the world reveals to you through the several means of contract which nature provides. But of all the senses, I am sure that sight must be the most delightful.