At the Movies: "Notes on Blindness"

This past weekend I had the pleasure to watch Notes on Blindness at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

This brilliant documentary describes the intellectual and emotional journey of English theologian John Hull.

Hull became permanently blind (after a lifetime of vision problems) in mid-life. Hull lived to be 80 years old, passing away in 2015. He was completely blind for more than 30 years of his life.

At first Hull was angry, wanting to fight back against blindness. Over the years he came to terms with this unchangeable fact, and honed his mental and emotional resources accordingly. He was a deeply literate and humane man, and used both those attributes to fashion a rich life despite -- no, because of -- his blindness. His book Touching the Rock records his "notes on blindness," on which the film is based.

One suspects that as a theologian Hull knew the Serenity Prayer, although he does not quote it in the film.

Serenity to accept what we cannot change/Courage to change the things we can/Wisdom to know the difference. It's all here.