See the light

As I left work today I passed Mr. White's house. He's a tenant of mine who lives beside my office. His porch is always decked out in wind chimes and plants, but to celebrate the season, he's literally decked the halls with lights. It's a festive display although small. It caught me off guard seeing it today as I left the office as night was falling. It caught me off guard when I realized, Mr. White is blind. Of all my tenants on that street - the blind one decorated for Christmas...with lights...that he'll never see. He told me he has to feel them to make sure they're burning. He has to make sure they are warm. On this same evening, I rode through a neighborhood. A seemingly normal place for people to live. Some houses I passed had decorations and some did not. As I approached the stop light, scrawled on the back of a convenient store were 2 words.."War Zone." As I looked past the decorations, there were groups of people walking the street. Were they kids? Who knows? But this didn't look like a war zone to me. The evening just seemed to be full of contradictions in my mind. A friendly looking neighborhood labeled "war zone," a blind man putting up decorations for all the world to see...except him.