An indelible line from a great Beatles song, "Strawberry Fields Forever." Poetically beautiful. One of John's greatest songs and vocals. A trippy, cool track too. The Beatles at their psychedelic best.
The first part of the line is most probably NOT true. It isn't easy to live with eyes closed. Not really. All that messy bumping into things. It's not easy to live with eyes open either. You will be overwhelmed by the dreck, the hurly-burly of humanity, and non-stop-eternity, rushing across your eyeballs.
Living is not easy. Even when you ease into the day, there are the swirling storms in your heart and head.
The second part of the line is probably, for sure, true. Misunderstanding all you see. Yes, indeed. Our perceptions of the world, are partial, limited, skewed. Paraphrasing Plato we are prisoners of our senses five. Watching those shadows on the walls of the cave and declaring that's life.
We live in the big, puffy, clouds of unknowing. There is a sadness and hope there. We don't really know what's going on. The not-knowing is sort of a liberation. We just have to carry on as best we can. As the great r&r philosopher Tom Petty put it, we must go forth and "Damn the Torpedos."
