Visual Arts

Yesterday I mailed a card to my granddaughter depicting Claude Monet's "The Walk Near Argenteuil." I love this picture.

It's a man and a woman walking in a field of flowers carrying black umbrellas. A child is walking ahead.

In 2007 my Boyfriend and I were fortunate enough to tour Monet's home and gardens in Giverny, France. A real treat for the eyes.

Monet once said this: I wish I had been born blind, then suddenly gotten sight so that I could see without preconceived notions.

Interesting! My Boyfriend recently read an intriguing book called "Crashing Through." It's about a man named Mike May who was blinded when he was three years old. He defied all expectations by breaking world records in downhill speed skiing, joining the CIA and becoming a successful inventor, entrepreneur and family man. He never yearned for sight.

Then in 1999 he received revolutionary stem cell transplant surgery to restore his vision.

The book deals with how he coped. It was very difficult. Turns out the brain has much to do with our vision and much of what we perceive visually is learned from the time we're born.

If you saw a dog for the first time how would you know it wasn't a bear or a horse?

He couldn't tell men from women. He didn't know when someone was laughing or scowling. He couldn't tell his children apart. It bothered him that his wife, to whom he'd been happily married for many years, was kind of messy. He never knew. Vivid colors where painful.

I can't tell you much more because I haven't yet read the book.

However, it's safe to say that Claude Monet, and all of us, should be careful what we wish for.


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