Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.

Most of my inspiration to write comes from music. When I'm listening to music certain lyrics just stand out to me. Then I start thinking about what they are talking about. Today I picked out "living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see"  It reminds me of something we talked about in English class last year. The saying Ignorance is Bliss. Now if want to understand this saying fully you need to know the meanings of the words. Most people when they hear ignorance they think rude or self centered. But the word ignorant means a lack of knowledge or education. To be ignorant is to be clueless to certain things. The word bliss is an emotion. Happiness, so pretty self explanatory. So when you look at the saying again Ignorance is Bliss, it's basically saying non knowledge is happiness! Now, in many situations this is true! The less you know, the less you worry, therefore the happier you are. It's sad but true. There is so much going on in our world that people choose to just turn their back to. A good example of this is when you see the commercials come on about sponsoring a child. Those commercials make so many people uncomfortable that they have to change the channel. They were a lot happier when they didn't have to look at how terrible those childrens lives are. Another example of this saying is the story The Cave by Plato. It is a very interesting story, I like it a lot! It is written as a dialogue between Socrates as a teacher and a boy name Glaucon. Socrates begins by explaining this group of people and how for their entire lives they have been chained up and stared at the same wall in this cave. Their entire bodies chained there so their gaze falls directly in front of them on this wall. Behind them is a giant fire and between the fire and the prisoners is a walk way which causes shadows to be cast by people from above. Their only glimpse at reality are these shadows. You might feel sorry for this group of people but, to them they don't see this as a bad thing. They have done it their entire lives so they don't know any better. They think that this is what life is supposed to be like. Socrates continues by asking Glaucan what he thinks would happen if a prisoner was unchained and asked to stand up. To be freed and to go see the world for what it really is. Not knowing anything for its true appearance, only the shadows. What if the prisoner was to be drug out of the cave in the sunlight. Don't you think the prisoner would be angry? Taken away from everything its ever known to see that it is all only a sliver of what there really is. Socrates then explains that the prisoner stays up there a while, starts to adjust and learn things. Finally accepts that what he knew was false, and this world is true. Socrates then asks Glaucan what would happen if the prisoner was to return to the cave. His sight wouldn't be as good in the dark and he wouldn't be able to see the shadows for shadows but for what they really are. Would he dare to free the rest of the prisoners for if they had the hand to kill the man who wanted to take them away from the familiar and into the unknown, wouldn't they?  I love this story. It completely fits the idea that ignorance is bliss. Now going back to the lyric! Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.  Wouldn't life be so easy if we just focused on what we knew and ignored everything else unknown? The more we learn the more we need to learn. We should never turn our backs on things that we don't necessarily understand at first. It may not be easy to open up and learn and try new things but that's where amazing things can happen. In my life right now I am preparing myself to move away from home to go to university. I am leaving everything behind that is familiar and comfortable to go to a place that right now seems big and scary. It's going to be an amazing adventure and I am so proud of myself for going for it! It will be hard at first but I just have to open my eyes to the amazing opportunity that has been placed in front of me and embrace it. Take it for everything it has to offer and grow and learn from it. Then, when I'm done sucking up all the knowledge there I am going to come back home and teach everyone else, whether they like it or not! =) So living may be easy with eyes closed, but its so much more beneficial to just suck it up and open your eyes to all the endless possibilities! In life you have to work hard for the things you want, and when you succeed the feeling of pride and accomplishment will replace all the struggles you went through to get there!