” … the seeing commit a strange error … ” – Jacques Lusseyran

Philip Graham has a fascinating look at French memoirist Jacques Lusseyran  over on his blog.  Lusseyran lost his sight when he was six, and subsequently cultivated awareness of his other senses.  He lived a storied life and was essential to the French resistance during the Nazi occupation of Paris.

And of course, there is a message here for writers:

Over the years I’ve found that I keep coming back to Lusseyran’s writing, for the particular mix of clarity and spirituality that marks his vision of the world, and his simple but powerful credo of paying attention. When Lusseyran could summon his concentration, he could, sightless, identify nearby trees, even small details of the landscape around him. “Being attentive unlocks a sphere of reality that no one suspects . . . the seeing commit a strange error. They believe that we know the world only through our eyes . . . permit me to say without reservation that if all people were attentive, if they would undertake to be attentive every moment of their lives, they would discover the world anew.”

via Philip Graham » Blog Archive » I No Longer Saw Faces.