July 28th, 2005

What are we Missing?

by Joshua Porter  |   1 Comment  |  shortlink: http://bokardo.com/p/149

One of my favorite authors is Jorge Luis Borges. In high school I borrowed a book by Borges from my English teacher that I’ve been thinking about ever since: Labyrinths. In the short parable “The Witness”, Borges contemplates what is lost when someone dies:

there was a day that extinguished the last eyes to see Christ; the battle of Junin and the love of Helen died with the death of a man. What will die with me when I die, what pathetic or fragile form will the world lose?

This is Borges at his best: asking questions like this. I wonder what is happening now, while we live, as we become so consumed with media and text and video games and all the things that fracture our attention. What are we missing? What have we overlooked? What miracle has occurred that we just haven’t noticed?

What people are in need who are being ignored? What innovation has been born that we haven’t acknowledged? What new genius is in our midst that we haven’t understood?

What we pay attention to isn’t always deserving of it. We could be missing the blossom of a wild rose.

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