It's The Vision Thing Again

Things are not always as they appear. I believe that this is true because lately I have been walking around with my chin protruded and my nose up in the air. An outsider might easily mistake this posture as that of an overly puffed up or snobbish person. As I have said though, some things are not always as they appear to be. The reason for my frequent protruding chin and pointed nose is that I have had to adjust my posture in order to see things clearly. Pointing my chin and nose allows my bifocals to work properly. Like most persons my age I suffer from a condition called myopia.

I never imagined myself as a person that would need to remove his glasses to see something up close. Yet, I can’t thread a needle or remove a splinter with my glasses on. While I have not yet had to ask someone to read the check for me at a restaurant, I know that day is coming. Lately I tend to recognize more people by their voice as they approach before I can actually make out their face. Being unable to see things far away changes your perspective.

I know dozens of people my age and even older that have no problem with myopia. They have the ability to see off into the distance with a degree of clarity that would make the Hubble envious. In fact their far seeing ability exceeds that of most people. Some of these people have won awards for this ability, and one close friend of mine is the self proclaimed champion in this area with abilities bordering on the supernatural. Some of us would call those people “worriers.”

Worry is the exact opposite of being myopic. A person that worries possesses the ability to determine the results of future events. They can play them out in horrific detail. Champion worriers have an added ability. Simply through their worry they can change the future. I know several persons with such skill that they are required to focus all of their attention on their current worry just to make sure things don’t turn out as they fear. This is a solitary skill as really good worrying is best done alone. Occasionally worriers do gather together. I have often observed group meetings of worriers testing their skills as a group forecasting the future. It seems to me though that group worry is the least efficient as they never seem to forecast properly.

Worriers have incredible powers of recall. They tend to rely heavily upon their past experiences in order to project exactly how things are going to go in the future. Sometimes worriers use reference material. The most common form of reference is my “girlfriend’s friend’s co-worker”, who has suffered some horrible fate in the past. These references are of course irrefutable since the worriers’ code requires the protection of sources and these persons therefore remain nameless.

I once tried to take a picture of a worrier. This is something that no man has ever attempted in the past. Yet each attempt was met with failure as the worrier would always get away before I could snap my shot. It seems that worriers have an uncanny ability to quickly project themselves into the future before you can catch them in the moment.

I think that most worriers could use a bit of myopia. Those of us that suffer from this condition know that myopia causes us to focus on what is right in front of us. No matter how hard you try when you are myopic you can’t see far enough to worry about what is ahead. You just focus on what is in front and move along a little at a time. Myopia also makes you squint. We do this in order to see things just a bit differently. Usually just adjusting your perspective is all that you need. Everything suddenly becomes clearer.

Somehow the older I get the worse my vision becomes. I can’t see very far. But then I never could predict the future. I can only really grasp what is directly in front of me. My focus is keener as I direct my attention to the task at hand, just inching along a little at a time. I know that there are really big things out there looming on the horizon, but my eye is on the present. I don’t worry much these days. Perhaps it is just a vision thing. Maybe I just can’t see far enough to worry about what might be out there. I do however find myself squinting quite often. Just changing my perspective causes me to know that the fuzzy thing I see up ahead is probably not so bad, and maybe if I just focus on one little bit at a time, paying attention to what is right before my nose, things will work out.

Come to think of it this whole myopia thing is not so bad. I can’t see as far as I once did. In fact all that I can see now is this present moment. This is the moment that is happening right now as I sit here writing this. This moment will never change. I think I will just stay here and squint for a minute. Just changing my perspective that way things always seem so much clearer to me.