Everyone who reads this newsletter knows that I had cataract surgery over the last two months.

I announced this not-so-uncommon news in March when I suggested I was Seeing the world with new eyes. There I recounted my 60-year history of wearing glasses (complete with embarrassing photos) because I’ve always worn glasses. When my doctor passed along the good news that while I would need a pair of reading glasses I probably wouldn’t have to wear corrective lenses for driving and normal activity, I decided to give what I called the “naked look” a chance.

Let’s just say that the change to my self-image felt weird, which was right in line with the weirdness of the actual procedure to remove the cataract and the subsequent changes in how I saw the world.

Then April arrived. After having the cataract in my left eye removed, I wrote about that experience in Most of what we see is behind our eyes. The seeing thing was still weird because for the first time in over 60 years I was no longer nearsighted. The clarity came when I looked off into the distance. For the first time in forever everything from the end of my outstretched arm to the horizon was beautifully clear and crisp. Yet when I pulled out my phone, it was all fuzzy. As my doctor had predicted, reading glasses were a necessity for everything from work on the computer to navigating a menu to reading books in bed. Yikes!

I tried to adjust to reading glasses for about five weeks but finally decided it was time to return to normalcy. For those who saw the headline and thought I was going to write about some new discovery to break the fever of the Trump cult, I’m sorry to disappoint. This is all about going back to what I’ve known since I was in third grade.

At my last checkup I asked for a prescription for new glasses. I didn’t care if the top part was just clear glass because I was tired of fooling with reading glasses all the time. My doctor agreed that it would be easier. With prescription in hand I met our friend Garrett Drake at Apex Optical. * We selected several options for frames and then Garrett let me take the top two choices to New York so that Andrew and Candice could weigh in with their preference after seeing them in person. A choice was made and last Wednesday I picked up my new glasses!

Whew!

Even now that things “feel right” I’m going to work hard to remember what it was like to take a different approach to seeing the world. Instead of coming to the table with preconceived notions I’ll try looking afresh at what is right in front of me.

It is always good to remember what Marcel Proust once said: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

Here’s to new eyes . . . and a new pair of glasses.

More to come . . .

DJB

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*Garrett is our friend in part because we’ve bought more than 20 pairs of glasses from him for our family through the years. We are very good customers . . . and we recommend him highly.

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Image by beasternchen from Pixabay