and Words
Whatever the words that you hear
Somehow the meaning is clear
We’re all on the same ship together
Moving on
From the first time that life could be heard
To the last sounds of men on this earth
The question is always the same
Where are we going? where are we going?
Carry on, carry on
Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.
The scene starts quietly in a recording studio. A few notes start to sound from the piano as Tom Sullivan holds the microphone as if it were his lifeline. He sings the first few verses; you notice his eyes looking into the distance as he focuses on his words.
Tom was born prematurely in 1947 and was put into an incubator. This procedure saved his life, but doctors didn’t yet know to to appropriately calibrate the equipment. There was too much oxygen in the chamber and the developed a film over his eyes that robbed him of sight. Tom was not born blind, but he has been blind his entire life.
His words are soulful, he’s not merely singing them but he’s searching for meaning. Perhaps he’s not singing, but he’s asking, even praying. It’s the supplication for answers, but does he get a response?
The music continues, but the scene suddenly changes to a bar. He sings as he plays the piano; he now has other musicians playing along. His voice now is almost screams into the microphone. At the bar, you can see other people dancing to the music. It’s a summer gig that he got while he’s in college, during a time when his life seems to lack direction.
This is a song that most won’t recognize. It’s not even among the top ten songs for Chris de Burgh in Spotify, but it’s the one that always takes me back to this scene. I tracked down the song years later when I was finally able to do a web search and narrowed it down by lyrics.
I only wish I could get a complete version from the film covered by Tom Sullivan (or Marc Singer) because I much prefer that rendition. Still, it’s on my favorites playlist, and I reminisce each time I hear it.
This is a scene from the movie “If You Could See What I Hear”. It may be my favorite film; it is certainly among my top ten favorite movies. I think I came upon it one day while I was channel grazing through HBO. It is the real-life story of Tom Sullivan. The film starts when he’s in college, as he befriends Sly and follows him for a few years.
He navigates through life without sight, but with a passion for everything else. His blindness is little more than an inconvenience, the way that many of us may deal with a hangover. He runs. He plays golf. In one instance even he skydives. He womanizes. He even drives on occasion.
And he plays music. Beautifully.
It wasn’t until the end of the movie where he fully realizes what his blindness means, not simply the implications on his life, but how people see him.
It was years after I had moved away from Florida that my mom was shopping for me, for my birthday if my memory serves. With the help of my younger sister, she did a book search and found the paperback version of the very same novel, If You Could See What I Hear by Tom Sullivan.
We were poor growing up, but that didn’t compare to how my mom grew up. She spoke of tales that they could not afford to buy paper, so she learned to write on the blank edges of the newspapers when she was young. Not fully understanding the market for out-of-print books, she was perplexed about the pricing for what looked like a plain paperback. My sister assured her that this is what I wanted.
That book remains, to this day, one of my priced possessions.
The book covers more of his childhood. You followed him as he attends the school for the blind and the implications of being there, away from family, when he was young. In some ways, it was more raw and more gritty. I discovered that he has facial vision, which allows him to “see” the shape of objects with noise, much the way bats do.
I can’t help but to draw parallels from his life and mine, not in the same events, but in overcoming adversity. Tom had one obstacle that permeated just about everything in life. I instead have gone through a series of obstacles, which color my life in more subtle ways:
- My father passed when I was nine. On that day, a friend of the family pulls me aside and tells me, “You’re the man of the house now; take care of your mother and sisters”.
- I overcame the language barrier… twice. Learning Spanish when we spoke Cantonese at home; Learning English when I only spoke Spanish and Cantonese.
- I overcame poverty. It all started by washing dishes when I was twelve. I have never stopped working.
- I endure racism. This includes being bullied when going to school; I was beat up and spat on and was outnumbered. Even today when we’d like to think that we rise above it, yet Asians are the target of hate crimes.
Though most days, I don’t think about it. I just put one foot in front of the other and continue. Much the way Tom likely didn’t think of his blindness as an issue. Until it was.
Yet as the song goes. We continue and persevere. We carry on…
Carry on, carry on,
When the autumn leaves are falling,
And you hear the voices calling you away,
Then do not fear, you’ll carry on
And in a similar way, Tom struggled with his faith in his life as I have… and as the music fades, we’re still left to ponder.
I hear that Tom Sullivan has become a motivational speaker about overcoming adversity. I have never had an opportunity to hear him speak, though I imagine that I could easily track down one of his talks on the web.
There’s a part of me that fears hearing said talk, that maybe his story, his actions, and his inspiration will somehow be watered down as he speaks of it concretely. Would it be all more meaningful if it were more poetic than instructional?