A couple of years ago, I was instrumental in helping a younger colleague retain his sight. He needed two different eye surgeries and money was tight for him. The expatriate doctor he had consulted and with whom I discussed, rated his chances as 50/50. The dilemma was now mine: to raise funds for not one, but two surgeries each of which had but an average chance of success or use the scarce funds on someone or something with higher guarantees? This dilemma was compounded by some friends in the medical line who had cautioned against throwing good money after bad. But the alternative was to allow a younger man live the rest of his life in darkness, despair and dependence. That alternative didn’t sit well on my conscience. Already, his children were getting impatient with his needs which they saw as demands and being at the beck and call of a dependent father is no fun for growing children who just want to be outdoors. Fortunately, the surgeries were reasonably successful and this man can now pursue and hopefully actualize a new vision for his life.

It all came back recently when I spent an evening with members and patrons of The Nigerian Society for the Blind. It is almost an annual ritual for me. I have nothing but praises for those who try to make life easier for the visually impaired in our midst – we live in a society that is ‘blind’ to many things. But my greater adulation goes to the blind on the day. It would have been a dark, gloomy evening for all of us but for them. The ‘colors’ they brought out, the joy with which they sang and performed, taught me – and others - that life shouldn’t end with being blind. Kudos to them. But I could not help thinking as they did their ‘stuff’ on stage, how many sights could have been saved if surgeries were available to them as at when needed.

Being born into a world of darkness is one of the greatest challenges in life. It is, like other disabilities, starting life with a major handicap. It is even, in my view, worse for someone who suddenly loses their sight. The ensuing disorientation, and loss of dependence; the sudden inability to appreciate colours, a breathtaking view, or even a simple smile, all of which they must have taken for granted, coupled with having to re-learn how to navigate oneself to the bathroom and around the house, can lead many to suicidal thoughts. Yet many of us are growing blind daily as adults without being aware of it. I am not now referring to physical loss of sight which could come with aging or ocular challenges. An inner loss of sight is even worse because we don’t see it as a challenge. Unfortunately, it grows on us ever so slowly, almost unperceptively. How many of us for example, ‘really see’ the security man who greets us everyday as we hurry past him to our posh offices? How many remember to give a grateful smile to the one who takes our briefcases as we breeze into our ‘spaces’? How many of us exchange pleasantries or have personal conversations with our stewards and drivers – people we actually entrust our lives to? How many acknowledge the greetings of a vagrant on the street because of what we think they want from us? How many can make an eye contact with a beggar let alone treat them as a person, a human being? Yet, in many cases, it is not our intellect or the works of our hands, but the circumstances of birth and opportunities that have made us different. Not seeing the poor in our midst is a form of blindness. Someone once stated that we find the poor invincible to us because of our seeming self-importance born out of self-centeredness. Not ‘seeing’ them in their poverty and need is a way we salve our conscience and ease our guilt.

A story is told of a famous preacher who was billed to deliver a powerful sermon at a big church. He arrived early dressed as a vagrant and moved to sit in the front row. One of the ushers came and sent him to the back row. Another usher came and short of sending him out of the church entirely, put him in an inconspicuous corner at the back. Time came for service and the ‘famous’ Preacher had not been seen. The bubbling, gaily-dressed, expectant church members were now filled with panic as their leaders consulted on a plan B. Then the Preacher identified himself and narrated his experience to a shame filled congregation. While the lesson is that we should all endeavor to see beyond the frock or apparel, we are all in reality, guilty – some more than most – of what the ushers did. We take the dictum of ‘being addressed as you are dressed’ too literally and tend to see through the poor in our search for the affluent. I accept that those who dress poorly are poor and this case is more of an exception than the rule. But the greater lesson for me is that it is still no excuse to treat the poor shabbily. Or worse, as a non-person. Everybody, irrespective of his station in life, deserves decency. They deserve dignity. It is also a grave error to think we don’t need anything from the poor. We all have something to offer each other. And the greatest gifts we can offer one another are empathy, love and kinship.

Ours is a society which loves to lavish on indulgences. In our world, a party or get-together is not successful unless food is surplus to requirement. We throw away food and pour out half-full bottles of expensive drinks into the gutter often in the presence of poor people who would go to bed hungry. We repeat this, week after week without a thought to the poor around us. They are invincible to us because that is what our conscience can live with. Our leaders are even worse. Many indulge in a lifestyle that is completely disconnected to the reality of their world. Some of the poorest countries in the world, have some of the most flamboyant and extravagant leaders. It is a tragedy. Being blind to the poor is not enriching. It is instead, being trapped in a dark world like that adult who can no longer see the sunset or other breathtaking views.

It is our duty to help the poor. In fact, it is in our enlightened self-interest because they can turn on us. The bible is full of several teachings on helping the poor, the widows and the homeless in the society. Remember also Jesus’ teaching ‘whatever you do to the least of my brethren, that you do unto me’. But first, we have to ‘see’ them to assist them. We can’t adequately address their needs if they are invincible to us. Besides, we’d be surprised that their souls, their inner cores, are probably purer and more beautiful than those of the people we like to associate with.

•Muyiwa Adetiba is a veteran journalist and publisher. He can be reached via titbits2012@yahoo.com