Kosher Movies: Blink

 Every morning as part of the regular synagogue  service, we recite the following liturgy: “Blessed art Thou Lord, King of the Universe, who gives sight to the blind.” The Sages tell us that this does not only refer to the sightless, but to every human being. It reminds us to be grateful for the gift of sight, which enables us to function easily in the world and allows us to appreciate the wonders of nature that surround us daily.

 Blink relates the story of the Edith and Sebastien Pelletier family, and their four children:  Mia, age eleven, Leo, age nine, Colin, age six, and Laurent, age four. Three of the four children will eventually lose their vision as they reach their teen and adult years because they are afflicted with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare, incurable vision disorder that will lead to permanent blindness. Their retina cells  are slowly dying, narrowing their field of vision until only the center remains, leaving them essentially blind for the rest of their lives.

Taking a suggestion from a psychotherapist, the family decides to take a once-in-a- lifetime world tour to experience all of the beauty and visual diversity in the world while the children can still see. They want to fill their children’s memories with images of the world before, as one film critic writes, “their world goes dark.”

The film follows the Pelletiers on their journey as they prepare for the inevitability of the future. The film does not deal with the future, and I was curious as to how the children are faring today. Perhaps there will be another movie to make. What is impressive is the positivity and strength of the parents as they shepherd their kids on the adventure of a lifetime.

The process begins when Edith and Sebastien ask their kids to make a bucket list of wishes, which becomes the backbone of a trip that takes them around the globe. Here are some of their wishes: to see an elephant and a giraffe and go on a safari, to travel on a sleeper train, to ride horses in Mongolia, and to learn how to surf.

Debbie Gutfreund, a Jewish educator, writes about Isaac Lidsky, an adult who began losing his sight of age thirteen because of retinitis pigmentosa. For Lidsky, learning about his eventual loss of sight at such a young  age was a death sentence for his independence. However, over time Lidsky faced down his fears and created a new vision for his life. Gutfreund observes: “He graduated from Harvard Law School magna cum laude and became the only blind person to clerk for the US Supreme Court in 2008. He clerked for both US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. After working for a large, international law firm, Isaac partnered up with one of his roommates from Harvard to create ODC Construction where he currently serves as CEO.” In his book, Eyes Wide Open: Overcoming Obstacles and Recognizing Opportunities in a World That Can’t See Clearly, Lidsky quotes Hellen Keller who said: “the only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

The rabbis in the Talmud tell us to judge every man favorably. That includes judging yourself favorably. Oftentimes we stumble and fail to see the divinity within ourselves and fail to actualize the immeasurable potential and resilience that we possess. Gutfreund reminds us of what we must do to overcome obstacles and challenges in life: ”Creating an extraordinary vision for our lives requires us to re-examine our assumptions and limitations, to live with our eyes wide open and break free by facing our fears and going towards what scares us. We break free by examining the lies that we tell ourselves about why we can’t do something. We break free by looking beyond our fears and focusing on a courageous vision of who we can become.”