I’ve decided that most people are blind. Okay, perhaps not blind; oblivious may be a better word.
A couple of decades ago, when I was in college, a friend took me to Catalina Island, a magic place 26 miles off the coast of California. We spent the day poking around cool little shops, touring the famous casino, and getting seriously sunburned.
As the day wound down, we made our way to the dock at Avalon Harbor to wait for the ferry boat back to Long Beach. And we waited. And waited.
As it turned out, the ferry had broken down and the ferry company had to redirect a boat from another line. And that takes time.
Avalon has a beautiful, natural, horseshoe-shaped harbor. The main pier is at the far southern tip of the harbor, set such that you can sit on the pier and look West across the harbor to the town of Avalon as it climbs up the hillside above the Pacific Ocean.
As the sun set behind the island, Avalon came alive. Lights winked on, illuminating the bell tower on the hill, then the casino, then the streets. The hillside faded through deep purple to black as one of the most spectacular sunsets ever exploded behind it. It was almost as if the island itself was boiling away into space.
My description couldn’t possible do it justice.
It was then that I realized how blind people can be. Our fellow travellers were completely oblivious to it all. Some were bitterly complaining about the delay, making vague threats about complaining to the ferry boat company or demanding their money back. Others paced about angrily. One young couple kissed, seeming unaware of anything but each other.
Of the forty or fifty people milling around on the dock, my friend and I were the only ones who even noticed the overwhelming display going off just across the harbor. Everyone else was completely absorbed in their own inconvenience.
I have found that such experiences are the rule rather than the exception. Most people wander through their lives so wrapped up in their own business that they completely miss the beauty that surrounds them every day. And the opportunities.
I suppose that’s why we need artists. To show us what we missed
Roger's View 