I find myself actually looking forward to those sweet hours after I get a new pair of glasses. I am always amazed at how crisp and clear the world can be.
Very true. I had an opposite experience recently; I was visiting with family in California and had the occasion to do a lot of driving. Like you I have imperfect vision--moderate myopia and mild astigmatism--and I am very sorely in need of a prescription upgrade. I do so much squinting that sometimes I feel as though my eyeballs are trying to tell me that they're tired of it and want me to cut it the heck out out already.
Now, as you may have gleaned, I have a scatterbrained memory. But as I was doing that driving in the California desert, I could
remember, across the gulf of ten years or more, details which I can no longer see, and clarity which is no longer there. It was as dispiriting as your new glasses will be uplifting. When I have to rely on my memory above sensory information, I feel handicapped indeed.
I look at the moon sometimes and marvel at the quiet marvel of corrective lenses. How many generations of humans there were who had nothing, for whom all clarity went out until they simply died. If I take my glasses off and look at the moon, it becomes ten times blurrier. It reminds me of that greatest of moments in
The Chronicles of Amber when Corwin, having been blinded by his brothers and imprisoned in a dungeon for many months, grew his eyes back and slowly recovered his vision until, at last, one night on the trail he looked up at the moon in the sky and it was absolutely crisp. Such is the power of glasses or contacts for most of those of us who are not fortunate enough to be able to grow our eyes back into the correct shape.
In concurrence with your post, I will say just how much I love the power of sight. To this human, it is the greatest of all human sentience.
Update: I was torn between posting this in the Love thread or the Links thread, so I'm compromising by editing this post to put it here. I defy anyone to watch this and not come away smiling. Disneyland's Main Street Electrical Parade!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OdK5-yWIGsTo think, just forty years ago Americans were still able to appreciate some of the marvels of our age we now take for granted. Even as recently as the '70s, things like synthetic dye, plastics, and, yes, electricity were something to be proud about. I for one think they still are! There's more than just nostalgia for the parade to have the word "electrical" in its title!
Me and electricity go way back. It was always my favorite utility, and my favorite superpower--and something not to be treated with kid gloves (as its appearance in my dream will attest!). Luckily one needn't be more than just another mild-mannered citizen to undertake the joys of electrification!
