Pun intended!
After I got a few questions about it, I reread my eye surgery post and realized that I wasn't totally clear about the near vision surprise I had. Or perhaps more accurately, I didn't really understand it myself. You see, I knew very well that I was gonna lose some unaided near vision, and knew very well that I would need glasses to read comfortably. And I am so absolutely elated to have such incredible distance vision that I still find myself alternately covering one eye and then the other, just to marvel at the difference. It's like someone opens a filthy window, and then on top of that makes everything bigger and shinier. If I ever seen the world this clearly (out of one eye at least), then it was too long ago to remember.
But back to the near vision thing. As the week wore on I realized that it was not the loss of clarity that surprised me, but rather my inability to compensate in any way. For the last 50 years, if something was blurry or too small to read I simply moved it closer to my face, or squinted. Guess what? Neither of those solutions work anymore. That's why I specifically mentioned my phone because I had it in mind that for occasional needs I could just "look a little harder". No way man! Doesn't work.
But I'm pretty sure I will adjust quickly. I haven't had to yet because I continue to wear my regular glasses with just one lens, but after Tuesday I will be completely dependant on my implants. I'll tell you one thing. I sure won't be whining about it, because the improved over-all sight is mind boggling. Plus, you never know. The change we are making to the right lens should help a bit.
And you know what's really, really cool? Being able to read the menu board at a fast food restaurant before I get to the counter!!
And technology is on my side in other ways as well, in that I can always get a bigger phone and zoom the text size way up, and as most of my recreational reading is done on an electronic device there are almost no limits what you can do with that. The only real handicap may be reading the nutritional labels on the food I buy, but Colby tells me I do way too much of that anyway. :)
And perhaps you may recall that my last post wasn't really about my sight anyway, it was about my continuing search for happiness in the moment. Despite some good advice I can't pretend that I have solved it in the last few days. I still continue to look forward to a better time. And while I agree with John's comment that happiness, like everything else, ultimately comes down to a simple decision, the fact that it's simple, does not make it easy. I tried to think of some examples to illustrate my point but quickly realized I need but one. I give you the case of the addict!!
And that's all I got for today. I am starting to get that feeling again, and anticipate posting at least every few days. We'll see how it goes. I hope a bunch of men (or better yet women) with hammers and wrecking bars arrive here tomorrow morning to start rebuilding my garage. But in the spirit of my post, if they don't, I'm not gonna let it make me unhappy. I'm gonna get pissed off instead!! Either way, it will give me something to talk about.
....and once I have two new eyes, maybe I need to look more closely in the mirror...
"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes."---Carl Jung
Love
Peter
After I got a few questions about it, I reread my eye surgery post and realized that I wasn't totally clear about the near vision surprise I had. Or perhaps more accurately, I didn't really understand it myself. You see, I knew very well that I was gonna lose some unaided near vision, and knew very well that I would need glasses to read comfortably. And I am so absolutely elated to have such incredible distance vision that I still find myself alternately covering one eye and then the other, just to marvel at the difference. It's like someone opens a filthy window, and then on top of that makes everything bigger and shinier. If I ever seen the world this clearly (out of one eye at least), then it was too long ago to remember.
But back to the near vision thing. As the week wore on I realized that it was not the loss of clarity that surprised me, but rather my inability to compensate in any way. For the last 50 years, if something was blurry or too small to read I simply moved it closer to my face, or squinted. Guess what? Neither of those solutions work anymore. That's why I specifically mentioned my phone because I had it in mind that for occasional needs I could just "look a little harder". No way man! Doesn't work.
But I'm pretty sure I will adjust quickly. I haven't had to yet because I continue to wear my regular glasses with just one lens, but after Tuesday I will be completely dependant on my implants. I'll tell you one thing. I sure won't be whining about it, because the improved over-all sight is mind boggling. Plus, you never know. The change we are making to the right lens should help a bit.
And you know what's really, really cool? Being able to read the menu board at a fast food restaurant before I get to the counter!!
And technology is on my side in other ways as well, in that I can always get a bigger phone and zoom the text size way up, and as most of my recreational reading is done on an electronic device there are almost no limits what you can do with that. The only real handicap may be reading the nutritional labels on the food I buy, but Colby tells me I do way too much of that anyway. :)
And perhaps you may recall that my last post wasn't really about my sight anyway, it was about my continuing search for happiness in the moment. Despite some good advice I can't pretend that I have solved it in the last few days. I still continue to look forward to a better time. And while I agree with John's comment that happiness, like everything else, ultimately comes down to a simple decision, the fact that it's simple, does not make it easy. I tried to think of some examples to illustrate my point but quickly realized I need but one. I give you the case of the addict!!
And that's all I got for today. I am starting to get that feeling again, and anticipate posting at least every few days. We'll see how it goes. I hope a bunch of men (or better yet women) with hammers and wrecking bars arrive here tomorrow morning to start rebuilding my garage. But in the spirit of my post, if they don't, I'm not gonna let it make me unhappy. I'm gonna get pissed off instead!! Either way, it will give me something to talk about.
....and once I have two new eyes, maybe I need to look more closely in the mirror...
"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes."---Carl Jung
Love
Peter
It actually sounds like you're already looking inside a little and that's exciting. Is your other surgery Tuesday? I love you and love hearing from you!
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