“She can’t see.” My friend was watching his daughter pretend to know what was happening on the other side of the room. “She just won’t wear glasses. So frustrating.” About a year later contact lenses had solved the vanity part of his daughter’s not wearing glasses, and she was reacting to what was going on around her just fine.
But what is it about not wanting to wear glasses (and sometimes hearing aids)—objects that make weak eyes and ears work so much better? Perhaps it’s just that you don’t like the way they look. Or, you don’t want to admit your eyes have changed. Or, you need glasses only sometimes, like to read small print.
I have pretty great near-sighted vision out of my right eye. (Really.) So I used to take my glasses off to read because that was easier than using my bifocals. I’d put those bifocal glasses to one side and then forget where I’d left them. A few years ago, I looked into LASIK eye surgery and had just my left eye, which is naturally far-sighted but had gotten weaker, operated on to make it truly far sighted again. So now I don’t wear glasses. Usually.
Sometimes during eye surgery, a tear duct is cut, which apparently happened to me. Now, if I don’t use eye drops regularly (and I mean regularly), I often can’t see as well as I should. And I forget to put the drops in sometimes because just around the house, my eyes seem fine.
But then I suddenly remember that I need the drops when I’m driving. This year when I went to renew my driver’s license, I blithely walked out of the house and up the street to the Department of Motor Vehicles on a hot summer day. And couldn’t read anything once I got there. In a panic, and feeling very embarrassed, I hurried home and called my doctor to beg for a quick ophthalmologist appointment. And I drove an extra 50 miles to keep it. While they found nothing wrong, I did purchase glasses for driving (sunglasses, other glasses), as back up, although the doctor who gave me the glasses prescription was a bit confused as to why I needed them. To him my eyesight was fine for driving. But I had a lot of drops in my eyes while they were testing!
And, yes, when I went back to the DMV, I passed my eye test for my license renewal just fine without those glasses. But the glasses are still in my car, and I feel grateful on sunny days for prescription sun glasses or for my clear glass ones late at night when I’m tired. Then, I appreciate those visual aids that I so happily put aside after my eye surgery! And I remember to pack my drops when I travel and usually remember to put them in before I leave the house….
Friends with hearing aids talk about how the technology has changed and how small they’ve become and how useless they often are at a noisy party. And sometimes they, too, forget their hearing aides the way I used to “forget” my glasses. Or people explain how they don’t qualify for hearing aids since they can’t use them where they work (too much noise). So why, they figure, should they buy hearing aids they can use only part of the time?
Sometimes the available technology doesn’t completely solve a problem. Even now my middle distance vision can be iffy, which often makes it hard for me to read fine print on those menus posted behind the cash register. “Can I take your order?” “No, just let this person go first. [What the heck does that say?]” So this can be a challenge and if you have that cashier’s job, just help by answering if someone asks a really obvious question. Or remember to put out the paper version of the menu on the counter. And if you and I are at a bar, just tell me what that bottle says on the back shelf. Please.
So if that’s my challenge, what is yours? Do you need people to repeat what they just said? Pitch their voice a little lower or louder? Tell you that one color is really red and the other color is green? Read the fine print. (Where did you put those $5 reading glasses anyway?) All these “helps” are simple ways to make the world work better. You take care of what you can take care of, and be matter-of-fact when helping others. Deal?
Today at the bank I overheard someone ask what the balance was on the receipt the teller handed him. “I forgot my cheaters,” the customer joked. And after the teller told him the balance, they both laughed. There you have it.
This is clearly a first world problem. And perhaps one of the smallest challenges on my “little things that can change the world” list. But what are you avoiding that would make both your daily life easier and people’s interactions with you simpler, more pleasant? What can you do to make others’ interactions better?
What’s your story?
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Photo credits from top:
Sally in 2006 wearing her bifocals — Spirit Moxie
The new glasses and drops — Spirit Moxie
A friend’s forgotten hearing aids — E.M.
Sky Glasses — John Scott