If a baby doesn’t see it
It’s as if it never was—
It just vanishes, enveloped
By confusing, blooming buzz
There’s no trace of it remembered
So it never will be missed—
If a baby doesn’t see it
Then that thing does not exist
When a thing just stops existing
If it isn’t in one’s view,
For a baby, that’s adorable,
But not for me or you.
“Object Permanence” emerges
As a baby learns and grows
Things exist without your seeing them…
As every toddler knows.
There are horrid things that happen
(It may come as some surprise)
That you never get to witness
With your sheltered, privileged eyes
You could always just deny them
And convince yourself—well, maybe…
But…no, it’s not excusable—
You see… you’re not a baby.
It occurs to me that this particular metaphor is really multi-purpose. So I’m not going to say what prompted this verse just yet. Place your bets in the comments, and I’ll fess up at some point, which point depends on how many people are actually placing bets (ok, not bets, but guesses, leave me alone gaming commission!). Do feel free to spread this verse far and wide, to encourage guesses outside your own field of vision…
***bonus points for the first to identify the source of the blooming buzzing confusion reference. No googling.***
“blooming buzzing confusion”
poem by … some bloke named Blake
—–
now I google
Nope!
So I see.
Must have been the “William”.
—
Still can’t think what sparked this.
Other than … life …
Well, yeah, life… but I can see at least three completely separate potential muses for this…
American elections?
Superbowl?
Wow! No and no, and I must say I would not have guessed either of those!
Ok… on second thought, one of them, very tangentially, could be it. But one or two orders of magnitude removed from the actual muse.
after midnight for me
I was going for current events!!!.
Tonight, I have no other guesses.
I had to click *something* for tagging purposes! Will likely click others after the reveal.
I want to say William James? I feel like that’s wrong, though…
So do you want to have the right answer, or not?
Blooming, buzzing … sounds like bees, or their disappearance through colony collapse?
Sounds like someone had a mawkish, Dawkish refusal to believe in some sort of injustice or another. There’s a lot of that going around though, so I don’t have a specific who.
That’s how William James said the world appears to a newborn.
I do.
want the right answer
We have a winner! William James, 1890.
Though, Johnny Vector, the specific blindness in this case (and yes, there are any number of possibilities) was in Imani Gandy’s twitter stream. If you don’t follow her (@AngryBlackLady), you are really missing out.
Aw. I was right! I wasn’t sure, though, and didn’t want to Google, per your rules.
And I should have realized you were referring to Imani Gandy’s timeline. EVERYONE should follow Imani Gandy. Also Elon James White (@elonjames) and Aaron Rand Freeman (@ANSFreeman). This Week in Blackness is my favorite radio (and also now video) show, so I’m huge fans of all three.
But Imani’s timeline lately… ugh. I hate that she has to put up with that.
It was unfair of you to post this so shortly after I came back from vacation. On the other hand, once the pictures are sorted, I have a Philippines Cuttlefish reference for your viewing pleasure. :)
Oh, implied in this is that I would have TOTES GOT IT RIGHT. Though I think that was because of a post of PZ’s, so … credit where credit is due.