Sunday, September 25, 2011
Through No Glass Darkly
It is nearly dusk. I lift my glasses like kicking a pair of tight shoes off at the end of a day. My face feels the same relief as my feet, suddenly light and unencumbered. As I lift my eyes my world becomes a Monet painting. Blurred edges and radiating light. Clumps of color and texture forming images that are recognizable but indistinct. Detail fades into light and shade. Green and greener, brown and black the oak tree limbs in their frozen game of Twister. I notice constant movement traversing the trunks. The traffic of chattering housewives stocking up for their families. A question mark standing out against a patch of blue light. The fig rustles in the wind like a dust mop shaken on a back porch. A flash of red, I know it by it's size and vibrance. No need to wait for the staccato tapping on a knot hole. Another red flash that appears to be the same size but closer in. I know this too. I don't need to see it's partner almost blended away in a a patch of dirt, a blob on the grass, to know it's species. A swooping flash of gray could be anything. But I know it by it's mocking shouts of warning. I search the ground to find the danger. A patch of color that does not grow in the garden. I find the golden victim of this outrage glowing motionless in the sun. There. Though the stripes cannot be ascertained and the tail wrapped neatly at the base does not twitch to give it away I know what it is, I think. It might just be a jug of chlorine forgotten beside the pool.
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Sounds like my world, close up, which is a blur without my glasses. I hold my grandson, but there is no crispness to his features, even though I know what he looks like. (However, I don't think I've ever mistaken him for a jug of anything)
ReplyDeleteI can remember how good it felt to come home from work and remove my glasses. But then I had to put them right back on. I had lasik about 6 years ago :)
ReplyDeletedusk is difficult time to see. i remember at dusk in new hampshire, they say the color of the moose blends perfectly with the road and that's when most of those types of accidents happen. just saying:)
ReplyDeleteMessing around witj this phone.....I need some glasses!
ReplyDeleteHow beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI can really relate to taking the glasses off and the world seeming like a Monet painting.
Truly beautiful. You are so gifted!
Ms.A I mistake those jugs for cats at least once a week.
ReplyDeleteThe Sweetest: My face gets so tired at the end of the day. Maybe someday I will do Lasik. I'm kind of scared to.
Ed: If I think I see a moose in my back yard there is a bigger problem than my vision: )
Nicole: That was the first thing to go! I couldn't read my phone.
MDSA: Thank you. I would trade that painting to see a dumpster clearly. I keep trying to wipe these things off my face!
I know what you mean.
ReplyDeleteIt is so frustrating when my kids need me, but I need my glasses first.
Mornings are the worst for vision.
And the upside is? No wrinkles. If I can't see the wrinkles, they don't exist!
ReplyDeleteIt's getting to the point over here where I'm seeing blurry through the lenses as well. I need bi-focals badly!
ReplyDeleteAlexandra: My favorite is in the shower. Companies should be reguired by law to print SHAMPOO and CONDITIONER in giant letters across the bottle!
ReplyDeleteGene Pool Diva: Haha! Don't I know it. I look ten years younger in that mirror without my glasses on : )
blueviolet: I'm already in progressives but I think the prescription on the reading part is running out ; )
Myopia poetry - it's the latest thing. :)
ReplyDeleteAllison: Yep. My future's so bright I gotta wear bifocals ; )
ReplyDeleteBeautifully written! Though I'm not sure I've ever really appreciated the world without my glasses!
ReplyDeleteLOL! I once thought a mailbox was a person without mine! I never looked at things this way sans glasses or contacts-I'm too nosy so I need to see what's around me.
ReplyDeleteI wear contacts and usually not my glasses because I can't stand the things on my nose too long. My recent contacts upgrade is driving me crazy though-they fix an astigmatism in my one eye and the whole world is so much clearer, brighter...at a distance, but I can't see squat up close.
I am near sided so my near sight has always been fine, and I can tell you it's nearly driving me batty to not be able to see small print, and details of the food on my plate. I have to wear half glasses with my contacts in-this is crazy! So I'm thinking I will go back to my peaceful fuzzy-far-but-still-good-close vision at my next eye appointment.
Susan:I tried some contacts. It was lovely in the middle as long as I didn't have to read books or road signs. I had to give up some vision from one or the other and it just wouldn't work!
ReplyDelete