{"id":43,"date":"2006-06-23T11:15:07","date_gmt":"2006-06-23T16:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/?p=43"},"modified":"2009-07-29T14:15:26","modified_gmt":"2009-07-29T19:15:26","slug":"the-blunder-of-blindness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/2006\/06\/23\/the-blunder-of-blindness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blunder of Personal Blindness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Scottish poet, Robert Burns, was once sitting in church doing what many of us do <\/strong>\u2014 eyeing the congregants rather than listening to the sermon. In this instance, Robert experienced a lesson beyond that which was being presented from the pulpit.<\/p>\n

Jeany, a woman wearing a beautiful bonnet, was seated in front of him. Naturally, she was pleased to be dressed in such a fine head-covering. In a sort of perky manner, drawing attention to herself, she flipped her head around so everyone would see the bonnet.<\/p>\n

What she didn’t know was that… there was a louse (a wingless usually flattened bloodsucking insect parasitic that attaches itself to warm-blooded animals) on her bonnet. As she tossed her head around, the louse worked itself into hiding and found residence upon the fabric.<\/p>\n

Noting this, Burns composed a poem concerning the matter.<\/strong> In the end, he framed a sort of prayer: O how I wish some Power would give us the gift to see ourselves as others see us. This would free us from many blunders and foolish notions. Our proud airs in our walk and the arrogance with which we present ourselves would be gone.<\/em><\/p>\n

To A Louse<\/strong>
\nWritten by Robert Burns
\nOn Seeing One On A Lady’s Bonnet, at Church in 1786<\/p>\n

Ha! whaur ye gaun, ye crowlin ferlie?
\nYour impudence protects you sairly;
\nI canna say but ye strunt rarely,
\nOwre gauze and lace;
\nTho’, faith! I fear ye dine but sparely
\nOn sic a place.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ye ugly, creepin, blastit wonner,
\nDetested, shunn’d by saunt an’ sinner,
\nHow daur ye set your fit upon her-
\nSae fine a lady?
\nGae somewhere else and seek your dinner
\nOn some poor body.<\/em><\/p>\n

Swith! in some beggar’s haffet squattle;
\nThere ye may creep, and sprawl, and sprattle,
\nWi’ ither kindred, jumping cattle,
\nIn shoals and nations;
\nWhaur horn nor bane ne’er daur unsettle
\nYour thick plantations.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now haud you there, ye’re out o’ sight,
\nBelow the fatt’rels, snug and tight;
\nNa, faith ye yet! ye’ll no be right,
\nTill ye’ve got on it-
\nThe verra tapmost, tow’rin height
\nO’ Miss’ bonnet.<\/em><\/p>\n

My sooth! right bauld ye set your nose out,
\nAs plump an’ grey as ony groset:
\nO for some rank, mercurial rozet,
\nOr fell, red smeddum,
\nI’d gie you sic a hearty dose o’t,
\nWad dress your droddum.<\/em><\/p>\n

I wad na been surpris’d to spy
\nYou on an auld wife’s flainen toy;
\nOr aiblins some bit dubbie boy,
\nOn’s wyliecoat;
\nBut Miss’ fine Lunardi! fye!
\nHow daur ye do’t?<\/em><\/p>\n

O Jeany, dinna toss your head,
\nAn’ set your beauties a’ abread!
\nYe little ken what cursed speed
\nThe blastie’s makin:
\nThae winks an’ finger-ends, I dread,
\nAre notice takin.<\/em><\/p>\n

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
\nTo see oursels as ithers see us!
\nIt wad frae mony a blunder free us,
\nAn’ foolish notion:
\nWhat airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us,
\nAn’ ev’n devotion!
\n<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Robert Burns rocks. <\/strong>How could it possibly be said more plainly? Is there a spiritual application to this concept?<\/p>\n

For a clearer understanding check the site:
\nhttp:\/\/www.robertburns.org\/works\/97.shtml<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Scottish poet, Robert Burns, was once sitting in church doing what many of us do \u2014 eyeing the congregants rather than listening to the sermon. In this instance, Robert experienced a lesson beyond that which was being presented from … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,3,1],"tags":[228,227],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-godly-living","category-relationships","category-spiritual-life","tag-humility","tag-pride"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9XvmV-H","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}