{"id":28905,"date":"2025-10-24T09:05:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T13:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=28905"},"modified":"2025-10-24T09:09:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T13:09:20","slug":"choosing-our-favorite-blind-spots-and-putting-ourselves-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/choosing-our-favorite-blind-spots-and-putting-ourselves-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing Our Favorite Blind Spots (and Putting Ourselves There)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Black-and-white<\/figure>\n\n\n

[Image: “ostriches<\/a>,” by DeviantArt user “mudri.” (Used here under a Creative Commons license; thank you!) Found it via inspiration from the source of the Alan Fletcher quote, below<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From whiskey river’s commonplace book<\/a><\/em> (with small differences in translation):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

I am not I<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not I.<\/span>
I am this one<\/span>
walking beside me whom I do not see,
whom at times I manage to visit,
and whom at other times I forget;
who remains calm and silent while I talk,
who forgives, gently, when I hate,
who walks where I am not,
who will remain standing when I die.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(Juan Ramon Jimenez [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…and:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

I have said that my problem is I am too old, too burdened by experience. But that is a lie. In reality, I am too young, chronically a naive child of wonder with a primitive lack of understanding; I am blind, helpless, forever newborn. I look at the world with wide, uncomprehending eyes, neither trying to classify its contents intellectually, nor trying to achieve technical mastery for some practical purpose. I feel a sympathy for all that is, without understanding my own place in the time and space in which I live. I have the savage’s dread of unseen foes. And like the primitive who stands for the first time before a giant Sequoia or at the oceans edge, I am again and again filled with awe by experiences of a world which my mind cannot encompass.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(Sheldon Kopp [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…and:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Ask Me<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt – ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(William Stafford [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…and:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Then there is the BIG PROBLEM<\/strong><\/span> — who are you? There is an endemic human tendency for self-deception. We all think we’re one kind of person when we’re somewhat different (especially viewed by others) than we imagine we are. You — the reader — no doubt feel you’re an exception.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(Alan Fletcher [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From elsewhere:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\"Wooden<\/a>[16th-century surgeon Gaspare] Tagliacozzi achieved early acclaim as a professor of anatomy at the University of Bologna and wrote a famous medical text on grafting [i.e., replacing body parts], but his legacy has more or less been reduced to noses. To this day a statue of Tagliacozzi stands in a wall niche at the university\u2019s anatomy lecture hall. One foot and an arm extend outside the niche, creating the impression that the man is coming toward us with excitement, to show us what he holds in his hand. It\u2019s a nose, presumably from a cadaver. \"Painting<\/a>One of two existing oil portraits of Tagliacozzi shows the scholar as a young man seated at a wooden desk, one hand resting on an open book, the other holding a nose between thumb and index finger. Tagliacozzi holds the item with the nostrils facing the viewer, as if to say, Yes, yes, it is, it\u2019s a nose<\/em>. Light illuminates what the painter wishes us to focus on: the surgeon\u2019s face and hands, his book, the nose. It wasn\u2019t until much later that I noticed the severed head, scalp flayed and brain on view, sitting in the gloom on the far side [i.e., bottom right]<\/em> of the desk. It was as though Tagliacozzi had insisted on including it, but the painter was like, This is too much, Gaspare<\/em>. I\u2019m kind of in love with Gaspare Tagliacozzi.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(Mary Roach [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…and:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Schopenhauer was a philosopher who was focused on the motivations of the individual. He concluded that they aren\u2019t too pretty: humans are motivated by their will and not by their intellect, though they may firmly deny it. In his 1818 publication, The World as Will and Representation<\/em>, he came to the conclusion that \u201cman can indeed do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wants.\u201d …Schopenhauer made this clear when describing the will as blind and strong and the intellect as sighted but lame: \u201cThe most striking figure for the relation of the two is that of the strong blind man carrying the sighted lame man on his shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(Michael S. Gazzaniga [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…and:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Stacking Cistern My Bones on Top of Your Bones on Top of Your Bones<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not an optimist. I lie awake at night and say the name
of everyone on the block and for three blocks over
and then the names of the people I don\u2019t know. I call
them by their house number, by their street address.
I wish they not be sick. I wish they not get shot. I wish.
It calms me but also is it selfish? Do I do it to keep
myself alive? I have a theory that if I let the light
out into the world then we\u2019ll all get to stay alive. Want
to stay alive. I think of everything I know about all
the people on my block. I list Ms. Edna and her children.
I say the names of everyone at the church and then
the people I don\u2019t know. I want everyone to have money.
I want everyone to have a house and food and be
believed in and be told they\u2019re believed in. I want
to know these things can happen so I don\u2019t want to die.
Or so I can feel the hollow part of me filling with all
of us getting to be filled up. There\u2019s no part of me that\u2019s
a saint. I\u2019m not saying this to get some extra credit.
I\u2019m saying I wonder if you do it too? My bones on top
of your bones on top of your bones. Or your bones
on top of mine. All of us awake at 3 am wishing the best
for people like filling up an endless cistern with light
and understanding. All the way down to the center of
the earth and up to where the solitary planes fly past.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(Gabrielle Calvocoressi [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: “ostriches,” by DeviantArt user “mudri.” (Used here under a Creative Commons license; thank you!) Found it via inspiration from the source of the Alan Fletcher quote, below.] From whiskey river’s commonplace book (with small differences in translation): I am not I I am not I.I am this onewalking beside me whom I do not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Juan Ramon Jimenez, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, et al.: 'Choosing Our Favorite Blind Spots (and Putting Ourselves There)'","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1393,95,250,251,4159],"tags":[1345,1477,1907,6144,6206,6207,6208,6209,6210,6211,6212],"class_list":{"0":"post-28905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-science-medicine","9":"category-art","10":"category-poetry-writing_cat","11":"category-essays","12":"tag-william-stafford","13":"tag-alan-fletcher","14":"tag-mary-roach","15":"tag-sheldon-kopp","16":"tag-mudri","17":"tag-juan-ramon-jimenez-2","18":"tag-michael-s-gazzaniga","19":"tag-arthur-schopenhauer","20":"tag-gaspare-tagliacozzi","21":"tag-gabrielle-calvocoressi","22":"tag-missing-our-own-point","23":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ostriches_mudri_deviantart.jpg?fit=900%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-7wd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28905"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28949,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28905\/revisions\/28949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}