Here’s a gorgeous poem to remind us that what the world calls a visual aberration, an affliction, or just plain wacko, might be a different way of seeing — a way that reveals realities not normally seen:

Monet Refuses the Operation
by Lisel Mueller, from Second Language

Doctor, you say there are no haloes
around the streetlights in Paris
and what I see is an aberration
caused by old age, an affliction.

(Excerpted from Second Language. Read the full poem here.)

Artists like Monet and van Gogh saw the world in a way that was once rejected as crazy. But their work came to be prized in every meaning of that word. This Monet masterpiece is called “Parliament in London,” part of the priceless collection at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

You may not be a visual artist. But if you’re one of those “crazy” people who sees hopeful possibilities in a world that others claim is going to hell in a handbasket, don’t let the cynics do eye surgery on you!

You won’t become as famous as Monet, but you’ll achieve something equally important. You’ll open other people’s eyes to the daily opportunities we all have to help make this world a more life-giving place for all concerned.