Blind Visionary

Efram’s Wolff’s incredible piece that he made for Stevie Wonder’s classic 1973 album, Innervisions, illustrates Wonder as a “blind visionary” seeing profoundly greater than his fellow human beings, the majority of which ironically possess the vision that Wonder was born without. How unsurprising it is that this album is now rightfully regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time because Wonder’s visions could not have been more accurate. Wonder effectively commented on the world as he saw it and caused his listeners to think on how they may be contributing to the issues of the economy, environment, drug abuse, racism, war, politics, and spirituality he found in the world. With lyrics like “Are you standing for everything you talk about?” and “If we don’t change the world will soon be over,” Wonder’s commentary and insight was so penetrating and powerful that his work is still relevant today.

Innervisions is an example of what I like to call deep disposition, the kind of mental and emotional outlook that can be so heavy that it has an effect on the outlook of others. The reason these deep dispositions have the effect they do is because we often find that we agree with or can relate to where the person is coming from. We see what they see and hear what they hear; our eyes and ears just needed to be exposed to it. I think it’s more likely for you get to this place once you have an understanding of the person’s intentions behind their disposition. Wonder’s intentions behind Innervisions can be found in its second track, “Visions” where Wonder expresses his longing to live in a world “where hate’s a dream and love forever stands.”

My intentions behind Deep Disposition are to identify the issues that I believe prevent us as human beings from reaching our full potential, to enhance your perspective by sharing mine, to encourage you to analyze before you accept, and to inspire deep dispositions of your own as you reflect on the world. In the event that I do achieve or fail to achieve any of these intentions, I ask you to share your thoughts whether you agree or disagree with mine. I don’t profess to have all the answers but what I do profess to have is an outlook that can help us find an answer and I’ll share other outlooks that I believe can help as well. Here’s to finding these answers that we are in search of and becoming blind visionaries of our own with deep dispositions that result in us changing our current condition.

P.S. I want to thank a blind visionary friend of mine for the inspiration, Mr. AJ Donaldson.