[Market Economy Guide] Knock, and It Will Be Opened to You

Helen Keller: “If I Could See for Three Days…” “I Would Not Despair”

…Life Is Too Precious to Spend It Merely Complaining About “Inequality” and “Unfairness”

“If I could see the world for just three days, on the first day I would look upon the faces of those I love. On the second day, I would witness the miracle of night turning into morning. On the third day, I would like to see an ordinary street filled with people coming and going. I can say with certainty that sight is the greatest blessing.” These are words from Helen Keller’s If I Could See for Three Days.

“If I Could See for Three Days”

In June 1880, a girl named Helen was born in a small rural town in Alabama, USA. At birth, she was a healthy baby girl with no problems, but around the age of two she suffered a severe fever, believed to have been meningitis, and lost both her sight and hearing. Unable to hear or see, it was also difficult for her to learn to speak.

It was the kind of situation that would have driven even the strongest person to despair. But Helen did not give up. With devoted help from those around her, she learned language and acquired literacy. After attending several schools for the disabled, she went on to graduate from Radcliffe College, one of the most prestigious universities in the United States.

Learned Five Languages and Published Essays

Defying concerns that she would never even be able to learn speech, she is said to have mastered five languages by her twenties. She then lived as a writer and social activist, traveling throughout the United States and around the world, devoting her life to serving people with disabilities like her own until she passed away at the age of 88.

The phrase “If I Could See for Three Days,” made famous by a mobile phone company advertisement, was excerpted from an autobiographical essay Helen wrote herself. It imagines the miraculous circumstance of Helen, in her fifties, suddenly being able to open her eyes and see the world. It is truly a gem of a classic passage that makes us realize what a great blessing it is to have sight.

How would you feel if someone said, “The world is unfair by nature. Don’t complain—accept it”? Those are the words of Bill Gates, one of the world’s greatest billionaires. Some, no doubt, would feel anger rather than sympathy. Some would protest, asking whether it can really be right that one person is born with every advantage while another is not. People may differ in their opinions, but the undeniable reality that the world is unfair does not change.

“What If You Had Been Born in a Poor Country?”

Even apart from Bill Gates’s remark, the world is unfair. Among people living in the same era and the same country, comparisons are easier, so unfairness may stand out even more. But let us shift our gaze beyond national borders. In truth, being born and living in an advanced country rather than in the Third World is also a matter of unfairness. It is said that if the world were imagined as a village of 100 people, anyone who has money in the bank, cash in a wallet, and spare coins lying around somewhere in the house would rank among the wealthiest eight people in the village. I do not know how happy each reader of this piece feels, but most probably belong to those eight.

Let us also think about the era in which we live. We are living, by and large, in a relatively peaceful era of liberal democracy. Suppose instead that we had been born in the colonial era, under a feudal dynasty, or worse still, in the midst of a world war. We might not even have lived out our natural span. We simply do not feel that unfairness as vividly because the differences of time and place are too great for direct comparison.

I am not saying that because we are at least somewhat fortunate, we should simply remain as we are. I am only saying that it is right to acknowledge reality for what it is. Only then can we open the door to the next step. If we go through life filled with dissatisfaction and resentment, there is nothing we can change. It is easy to feel indignant, but it is not easy to accept reality as it is and seek a path toward improvement. Still, that is the path we must take.

The Roles of Anne and Polly Were Precious Too

As we overcome the large and small difficulties we encounter in life, whatever they may be, they become assets. Is there not a saying that the word “crisis” contains both “danger” and “opportunity”? Trials are stepping stones to success. If we keep a positive mindset and continue to add effort upon effort, the day will come when we can smile and talk about our present circumstances.

The world is unfair, but that is not where the story ends. The world is harsher still toward those who collapse before hardship, while it grants unseen help to those who keep trying. There are names we cannot leave out when speaking of Helen Keller’s life: Anne Sullivan, Helen’s teacher, and Polly Thomson, the aide who followed after her. For more than half a century, Anne and Polly were Helen’s eyes and ears. For Helen, these two were benefactors no less indispensable than her parents.

But the sacrifice and devotion of Anne and Polly would have meant nothing if Helen had despaired and given up in the face of her unfair fate. Helen’s successful life was possible because she did not abandon her own life and kept pressing forward. Perhaps it was because Helen helped herself that the goddess of fate sent her such devoted helpers as Anne and Polly.

If you do not collapse in complaint, heaven will help you as you help yourself. Around you, too, there are people—parents, teachers, friends, and others—who are striving for your sake. Let us not make their efforts and prayers in vain. Our lives are far too precious to be spent merely in complaint.

■ Please remember

As we overcome the large and small difficulties we encounter in life, whatever they may be, they become assets. Is there not a saying that the word “crisis” contains both “danger” and “opportunity”? Trials are stepping stones to success. If we keep a positive mindset and continue to add effort upon effort, the day will come when we can smile and talk about our present circumstances.

Sung-no Choi

President, Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

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Original title: [시장경제 길라잡이] 두드려라, 그러면 열릴 것이다

Author: Sung-no Choi

Date: 2020-09-14

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=column&pn=6&idx=23075