Michael B. Mefford

“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” M. K. Gandhi
The above quote by Gandhi was the inspiration for my book’s title. I chose that quote and that title because I loved how it summed up terribly conflicting emotions. In psychiatry, we learned about the two different brains that each of us has. One brain is the primitive brain. It’s all about sex, aggression, violence, and emotion. It’s the animal part of us. It’s always been around, and for good reason. This part of the brain helps us survive, plain and simple. But over time, a new part of the brain came along called the neocortex. This new brain is responsible for the higher functions of human beings: judgement, abstraction, logical sequencing, and so on. The Old Testament “eye for eye” mentality is the mentality of the oldest part of our mind. Forgiveness,”turn the other cheek”, “love thy enemy” are all examples of new mind thought. But in the cold light of day, which brain do we listen to?
When I wrote Whole World Blind, I was surprised to find out the extent of the evil my bad guy could get up to. It was shocking. It made me wonder how any normal person would respond. Which part of the brain would win out? Would my protagonist become just as dark as his tormentor, or would he be able to push aside a mountain of pain to do the right thing?
The title didn’t actually come to me until I’d written many drafts of the book. I worked on it with varying intensity over an eight year stretch. It wasn’t until I’d finished my final draft and said, “Enough is enough,” that I stumbled across the quote from Gandhi. It was absolute synchronicity. The fit was perfect.