Many times I consider that people who don't have the capacity to see with their eyes, can perceive much more than those who use them for seeing. The fact is, sometimes the world in which we currently live our lives, so oriented to the culture and cult of image, has filled so much our mind of stereotypes, preconceptions and prejudgements that we're, in the end incapable of perceiving the essence of some people, situations or entities.

Every time we meet someone, that first time we see another human being, our eyes send to our brain a big load of information, based simply in the way in which the person dresses, the general physical aspect and the body language. This shouldn't be a problem if it weren't because such process conditions, at the beginning, what we can appreciate of the person.
I'm going to be too rough with the examples, but probably we wouldn't value so much the opinion of a teenager as we would value the one of a professor at a conference; nor would we expect to listen to the best advice about the latest technological gadgets coming from the red lips of a young and beautiful women; nor would we believe, at first, the romantic counseling of the drunkest man at a bar... However, it's very likely that the numerous and unlucky experiences of the latter, in love matters, have led him to be a preacher that uses the bar as a pulpit and full glass as a microphone.
In time, after a second encounter or after some conversation time has passed, that which is released of the mouth of the speaker begins to be cleared of what's added by the mind of the listener and many times, luckily, the person can be known for what really is and not for what it seems to be. But this situation is not, generally, a bad one.

There're circumstances in which we just can't free the speech from a major number of judgements and concepts that were added up at the moment of meeting and seeing. There's a noise in the understanding and, many times, we don't reach the level of communication that allows both the emitter and the receiver to link beyond words.

Lastly, in a too big number of occasions, our prejudgements transform themselves in obstacles, when we miss the chance to meet somebody else, just because we judge poor, inexact or wrong what that person could share with us. I remember that as a youngster I discovered that even from the mouth of the least expected person can come out words of wisdom or realisation.
As, since a small a child, my father taught me to listen and remember, many times happened to me that the words that I heard ten years ago meant strength and comfort now, facing a situation that occurred years later.
Just because of that, not getting to know one more human being, nor enjoying his or her company cam signify a great loss. And we don't just lose what we can learn, we also let go the opportunity to be of assistance or saying something comforting to someone who might need it or, even better, being there to listen. Sometimes listening, in silence and attentively, can save a life. The described scenarios show the high price we could pay in our lives for not trespassing that a barrier, ironically invisible, that our eyes lay for us. That's why, similar to the times when tears run down our cheeks, many times, we only have to close our eyes tight, to see better.