The well-being channel Pursuit of Wonder created a very touching animated short story about a young man named Tyler who was sitting atop the railing of the Lion’s Gate Bridge in Vancouver. Tyler might have been contemplating suicide but before he could take any action, a blind man named Lou said hello and asked Tyler to describe what he saw around him.
As Tyler grew more and more interested in describing the surroundings to Lou, he moved from the railing and down onto the pathway. When Tyler asked Lou if the descriptions helped draw a helpful picture for Lou, Lou responded that since he’s been blind since birth, he doesn’t know what anything looks like. That said, Lou explains that he spends all his time looking inward, so this interaction allows him to see outward through another person’s eyes. It also helps the person with sight to get out of their own head and see the world around them.
I find that people often say it’s important to look inward. You know, like in order to find strength or meaning in life or whatever else people say. But I can only look inward, and I’ve found that it doesn’t get you very far. The most enriching moments, the most enriching experiences, what keeps life worth living, I think, are when you’re looking outward. At least metaphorically. …In every little detail, of every little thing, in every little moment—in immersing into all the unfathomable features of the simple and mundane, and in realizing, viscerally, what it means that you can perceive at all. That is where, I think, life is.
