Against the Pollution of the I: On the Gifts of Blindness, the Power of Poetry and the Urgency of Awareness 2nd ed.

Jacques Lusseyran’s experience was both unique and exceptional but his insights are universally applicable and inspiring. Imagine being not only blinded as a child but surviving the Nazis’ Buchenwald concentration camp. And yet Lusseyran writes of how blindness enabled him to discover aspects of the world he would not otherwise have known. His writing vividly depicts senses beyond our normal” five. In What One Sees Without Eyes” he describes the divine inner light” available to all. But, crucially, he finds this light to be under attack. Just as Lusseyran transcended his almost unspeakable experience, his writings give wise, triumphant voice to the human ability to see” beyond sight and act with unexpected heroism. We can all, he asserts, learn to experience disabilities as gifts and see beyond what we see.