Has anyone read H.G.Wells' books? Many of his stories have been adapted into films by Hollywood such as War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man and The Time Machine. However, there is a series of short stories written by him that never found its way into Hollywood and one of them is "The Country of the Blind" - a marvelous short story.
A mountain climber named Nunez falls into an isolated valley in the Andes mountains. He discovers a civilization where everyone is blind due to a genetic defect. These people have adapted very well to their environment, needing no light in their dwelling and possessing extremely acute hearing. The only difference to these people between day and night is the temperature. Houses do not need windows. Nunez hence became the one-eyed King and starts to rule over them since he could not return to civilization. He failed miserably when he is not able to get them to understand the meaning of words like "sight" and "see" and "blind". He talks about light and colour but these people think he is crazy and an idiot. Then one of the elders came out with a brilliant idea of solving Nunez's problem by removing his eyes. Finally, in the end, Nunez decided that he would go through with the surgery to remove his eyes but a few hours before the surgery, he decided to go for a walk. As he walked, he noticed the sunrise creeping over the mountains. He saw the light glistening on the snow and ice. He thought of long-distant places of beauty he had seen in his earlier life. Then he gazed at the rock he had slid down on the day he had fallen into The Country of the Blind......and he began to climb up.
The people who lived in The Country of the Blind was not blind initially but over a period of time as they gradually became blind one by one, they slowly started adapting to life without the light. When we let go of the light, we become accustomed to the darkness and it is easy to lose our way. The Bible is light from God given to help us on our journey through life. It offers hope when we are suffering, gives practical advice for living, imparts moral instruction, insight into God's character and tells us what lies beyond the grave.
The psalmist in Psalm 119 declares, "Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path" and "the unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple". The Word of God is like a spotlight, lighting up a dark path. The Word of God is like a doorway allowing light to stream into our world from God's presence. And because of this, the psalmist "loves" the Word. He humbles himself before it, he strives to obey it, he meditates on it day and night, he memorizes it, he is comforted by it and he shares it with others.
There are many other lessons we can learn from this story, one that has great relevance to our world today.
Food for Thought :-
1. Every society has its blind spots and often tend to think that their view of reality is normal. Typically, it is normal for societies to persecute those who are different. What if the world around us is actually a "country of the blind" ? What appears normal is actually sightless people stumbling and crashing around in the darkness ? Only they have gotten so used to it that it seems normal and because Christians have such a different perspective, they seem to be idiots and fools.
2. The blind in the story have their own explanations for how their world was created and what are its limits. The sighted man is a fool and a threat. How often have we behaved like the blind in the story - when we think we know all and that we do not need to learn anymore ? Wells was obviously making a cautionary tale. In the Country of the Blind, we often find the blind leading the blind.
3. How is this story similar to the world we live in where the religiously zealots amongst us have their own tales of creation and their own explanation that have no intrinsic biblical coherence?
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