Blindfolded

The rite-of-passage into adulthood for a Cherokee Indian boy is for his father to take him into the the woods and blindfold him. The boy is then left alone. He is required to sit in the spot he is left. He must not remove the blindfold until the sun shines through it. If he  makes it through the night he is a man.

Obviously, the boy is terrified. Being in the dark, blindfolded, his mind plays tricks on him. He can see nothing, but hears everything. He is surrounded in darkness and is completely helpless. 

Finally, after a fearful night, the sun rises and he can remove his blindfold. It is then he discovers his father sitting beside him. Without it knowing, his father has been there the entire night, watching over him, ensuring he makes it through the terrifying night safely. 

There came a day in each of our lives, when we felt as though we were thrown from the beautiful, bright innocent life of childhood, into the a world that is scary, dark and filled with the unknown. That day happened for every person in different timing and in different ways.  Some children were thrown into the dark after having their innocence stolen from them. Some young adults slipped and fell into the world of uncertainty. The light that once helped guide them safely along paths seemed to slowly go out and before they knew it their world was filled with darkness.  And for some people life just began to pile on hurt and uncertainty at a slow yet steady rate, until, one day those people were completely unable to see anything at all.

Regardless of how you found yourself in the dark I am sure you can relate to the boy sitting on the stump, blindfolded, unable to see the world around him.  When senses we so rely on are taken from us, our heart and spirit are instantly filled with fear.  While you can guess what is happening or what is to come from using the senses you have left, you recognize that you can’t fully know what is truly going on around you. As you entered your adulthood you realized a sense had been stolen from you, and uncertainty started filling every part of your being.  Your childhood was gone and you found yourself blindfolded, and scared with no idea what is coming next.

So here you sit in the dark of the night with the blindfold tied around your eyes. Terrified and full of uncertainty, but just as it is true that all of us have to take our turn sitting in the dark, it is also true that dawn always comes, if we can only make it through the fear and the unknown of the darkness.

The thing I've noticed, however, even in my own life is that when the sun comes up we often refuse to take the blindfold off, because we have come to accept and even find some sick sort of delight in the fear and pain we've expereienced.  It sometimes seems more terrifying to take the fabric from our eyes, than it is for us to stay blinded by it, because we’ve learned to understand the dark, and we’ve decided to settle for the lack of peace.

Let’s not live like this anymore!  When the sunrises let’s find the strength and bravery to rip the blindfolds off our eyes.  Let’s determine that the nights purpose was to teach us lessons but night isn’t what we were created for. Let’s decide that our true place is in the light, that we all deserve the love, joy and warmth that morning brings. If we all start taking our blindfolds off, we will see that just like the boy found his father sitting on the stump next to him, we will find others sitting beside us as well. We will be surrounded by the people we found in the dark, and those who found us. The people we learned from, those who taught us lessons, the indivduals who we loved and who loved us... even while we couldn’t see.

While we each entered  darkness at different times, in different ways, on our own, if we are all willing to take off the blindfolds we will find that we have the opportunity to enter the morning light together.