Sight for Sore Eyes: The Visionary

The Visionary thinks nothing of helping others and sacrificing his sense of self-importance. He is the grey man who can light the way forwards.

Sight for Sore Eyes: The Visionary

The Visionary sees the world not through the sometimes dire prism of the news cycle but through an imagination that gives rise to opportunities for love, creativity and beauty — the currencies the human experience thrives on. 

This is not to say the Visionary is an armchair general, his optimism formed exclusively in a cosy bubble. Research is required, so the Visionary is well travelled and has tasted every dish, seen every film and read every book. People like him are infuriating, in that they tend to be the ones who can predict which cigars will age best. Still, that means that over a game of backgammon (at which, of course, he is brilliant), the humidor is well stocked with otherwise unsourceable goodies. 

The Visionary is a lateral thinker who understands that while good causes — and people willing to donate money — may be plentiful, there are ways of helping that others are yet to think of. They can range from the cultural to the economic to the nutritional. 

Ego could be a Visionary’s greatest enemy: with the world as competitive as it is, the idea of helping others and not sitting atop the plinth of your own self-importance is anathema to too many people. But not for our man. Our Visionary is a firm believer that you keep what you have only by giving it away, and so time, resources and generosity are given freely. 

Furthermore, he seeks no recognition or praise for such things. He personifies the maxim that those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind. 

Illustration: Sapper.

The Visionary personifies the maxim that those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind. 

The Visionary must look up to others. His humility will be informed by the people who came before him and who passed their knowledge to him — whether a father, close friends, a British bulldog, or the wisdom of writers and scientists to whom he will customarily defer any and all praise. 

High standards are par for the course. This is not a fool- sufferer or an unnecessary compromiser. Therefore, the Visionary has a wardrobe by Terry Haste, spectacles by Maison Bonnet, and always, always, has a notepad and pen on him — a habit the rest of us need to learn. He is careful about what he eats but feels like food is a journey; the peanuts in the bowl when visiting his house for dinner are vacuum-packed from Lebanon. Why? Because they are the best. The Parma ham with the melon is from a small farm west of Langhirano because the hillside forests provide particularly good grazing for the pigs, and because the farmer uses Duroc pigs, which, to our man, is the superior pig breed for Parma ham. Too many of us have forgotten how important it is to know these things. 

This column is intended to highlight rare and desirable characters we would all like in our lives. This is the first to have had its subject’s name bastardised to give praise to the undeserving. No one calls someone a Corinthian man or a Bespeaker or a Pathfinder who hasn’t deserved it, but ‘visionary’ is used an awful lot to make people sound impressive. Yet this is a disservice to our man here, and it is a fight we will have on his behalf. The Visionary is content to go under the radar. He is the ultimate grey man in the room who lets others do the shouting. But when all falls quiet, and it is time for reflection, it is the Visionary who does the doing.