The Man With Two Eyes (part three)

I can see clearly now but not forever

Previously, I spoke about the crush to this author's self-esteem to have to wear glasses and then how it hurt more than my ego to wear "hard " contact lenses. I'm not going to bore you with the exaltation of discovering soft, extended wear contact lenses but I will mention that I wore them daily, for about two decades and life was problem free. I would keep them on, day and night and then after a month, I discarded them and then put in a new pair. This arrangement was great as long as I didn't do anything stupid like go swimming without goggles. Of course, like everything else in life, the good times have to finally come to an end.

Let me first let you youngsters in a little secret. No matter how good your 20/20 vision is, by the time you are about 45 years old, the old headlights begin to weaken. This means that almost everyone will have to wear at least low power reading glasses when they get older. I mentioned this sad truth because it also occurs to those (like myself) who never had to wear glasses in order to read a book.

In terms of options, first I was faced with wearing bifocal glasses. You know, the ones invented by Benjamin Franklin around 1750. With these glasses, you can read through the bottom of the lens and also see at a distance through the upper portion. The old fashion ones just looked plain weird but that's hardly the case with the newer"seamless" ones. It's a lot harder to tell that the newer ones have two sets of glass melded together.

My biggest gripe with buying eyeglasses in general is that the more features you add (bifocal, scratch resistant, tinting, etc.), the more you have to pay. You could plan to spend about $100.00 but after all the lens  features and the designer frames have been added up, you're forking over more than $500.00 and I'm not exaggerating.

And did you know that the "bifocal correction" also comes in contact lenses? I did try these things for about one day. They have to give you a free test pair in order to see if you can bear keeping them in your head. I felt so dizzy and disoriented that the next day, I had no choice but to return to the doctor.  I opted to just fill a prescription for my regular distance contacts. Unfortunately, after speaking to the dear doc again, another crazy truth was apparent. I could wear my contacts but to read clearly, I would have to put on reading glasses. I fought wearing glasses for decades and now I'd have to put glasses on top of contact lenses! This seemed like some sort of cruel joke.

And why not throw another negative in for good measure. As one gets older, one's eyes tend to get a bit drier. I've had more than one occasion when I was driving, that my contact actually popped out and sat on my cheek. I had no choice but to pull over and find a way to cleanly place it back in. It had become sadly apparent that my eyes were rejecting this foreign body that they had clung to for decades. What would this eventually mean for the future of my vision? Was I forced to return to glasses? I had gotten so used to the freedom (not to mention the vanity) of contact lenses, so this did not seem fair. But there was another alternative, though it was scary at first. The answer came in the form of eye surgery.

To be continued.......

Like what you read and want to read more? Check out my website EndlessPerceptions.com

The Man with Two Eyes (part two)

June 1974 - Hard Not To See the Vanity in This

After a conversation with a passing acquittance, I found out about the existence of hard contact lenses. This guy Robert was standing in front of me, talking about how blind he was without his glasses. The fact that I could not tell that he was wearing lenses, made me want to jump up from my chair and run (not walk) to the nearest eye doctor. I had to have this amazing innovation. Little did I know that this idea was not so new.

First, let's make certain that we are all looking at the same page. These are  the basic parts of the eye that we will be most concerned about. Next, let's leapfrog through a little history lesson.

The Man with Two Eyes (part one)

We all have our shortcomings. Mine used to be these two things sitting on either side of my nose. I like to call them, my eyes. Dec 1964 - Eleven years old.

I’m sitting at the breakfast table, eating my nicely saturated bowl of Frosted Flakes cereal. I can hear the clattering the dishes and utensils from behind me as my mother washes the dishes.

I find myself staring at Tony the Tiger, who’s sitting on the table about five feet away from me. He’s smiling at me a bit too happily, I thought. I watch him, and then I glance at the buffet cabinet, holding all its fine souvenir glassware, which is about fifteen feet away. Tony was looking okay but I couldn’t make out the lettering on some the glassware in the distance. All this reminded me of school and I finally had to mention it to my mother. “Hey, Ma” I said. “When I’m in school, it’s hard for me to see certain things on the blackboard.” My mother turned off the water and walked over to me. She still had a drippy plate in her hand and an already soaked dish towel. Stopping her from doing her work, suddenly made me feel like I had said something important. 

“Do you mean from where you sit in the back of the class” she said. 

“Yeah. I kind of have to squint to see the writing on the board” I responded.

Where she came to stand next to me, the overhead light was partially blocked by her head. As I looked up at her, there was a glow around her that seemed very saintly to me. I know I’m exaggerating but this particular day, she did have the answer that would save me. “This afternoon when you come home, we’re going to go get your eyes checked. You probably need glasses” she said. I didn’t like the sound of this. She and my father both wore glasses but my brother didn’t. He was older so why was I having problems and not him. Anyhow, I figured it was like going the doctor. If you’re sick, he’ll give you something to make you better. After school, she and I walked up to 116th Street where the Optician’s office was. After all the amazing gadgets and tests were done with, I was told that I had Myopia (what?). In other words, I was nearsighted. The further away objects were from me, the harder it was for me to focus on them. In a day or two, we returned to the shop to pick up my first pair of glasses.

As I sat in the shaky highchair and looked at myself in the undersized round mirror, I had only one thought. Could they have made these black plastic frames any uglier? I hated the way this thing on my nose looked and I felt immediately self conscious. Life was difficult enough on my poor ego but to have to now wear glasses made me depressed. That I would have to adapt while playing sports with them was bad enough but the feeling that it added nothing positive to my poor face was the real bummer. In my sadness, I glanced around the store to see if anyone was watching me.

To my shock, all the signs around me, the people in the waiting room and even the optician, were now all crystal clear. How could I not be happy? My love for TV, movies and the world around me had been brought back into focus. I finally rationalized that it wouldn't be so bad if I had to get around without this odd and remarkable appliance most of the time. Maybe I’d eventually become happier wearing the glasses, than not wearing them. It was going to be great to see the writing on the blackboard again. I really didn’t want to miss clearly seeing important events so maybe this thing being part of my face now was a good thing. At least some of the time, anyway. At the age of eleven, I was quickly learning what the word compromise truly meant.

Across the next decade, I went through what I call The Dork Ages. As the years rolled on, I was able to get fancier looking glasses, which made me feel better about my appearance. Unfortunately, there was now a sad new truth. With each yearly eye exam came the understanding that my vision was getting weaker. In the beginning, I could squeeze my eyelids together and hope to make a difference with how I viewed the world but by the time I was twenty-one, my need for optical assistance was constant. I could hold my hand straight out in front of me but then I’d have to bring it closer an inch or two, to bring it into focus.

The other truth was that the worst the vision, the thicker the lens. I would have pictures taken of me without my glasses and not know what the photographer looked like. There was no getting away from the truth. I could have the biggest ego in the world but my presentation would make me take a step back. That was, until my next discovery. A new product called hard contact lenses.

To be continued……. 

Like what you read and want to read more? Check out my website at EndlessPerception.com

Invaders from Mars

Look over your shoulder or don't, fear is coming 

As an old movie came on the local station, I thought back to the state of television, decades past, as compared to now. It’s hard to believe that there was such a thing as “pre-cable.” Back in the day, if you wanted to see a new, highly rated movie, you had to get dressed and travel to the neighborhood theater (or further away). If all that seemed like too much trouble, you could sit in front of the trusty black and white, 16 inch television, which usually was the only one in the house.

Movies were such a precious thing back in the day. Used to be, the only way that you could see a film that you really loved would be to return to the theater again and again. Popular ones could run for years and seem like they would never find their way to the small, home screen. I guess that after the money that theater owners could make had been exhausted, we couch potatoes could finally see our favorites. That is, after they had been cut to pieces with commercials, of course.

I remember a particular TV show which used to come on Channel 9, in the evening. It was called Million Dollar Movie. It would run only movies, some pretty old, others pretty bad. There was one that made me have nightmares and the fear stayed with me for years. By today’s standards, it would be considered pretty lame but it had enough of a strong theme to scare the crap off of a particular ten year old (That would be me. By the time the movie got to the small screen, in 1963, I was ten). 


The movie I’m talking about is called Invaders from Mars and it was made back in 1953.

Americans were beginning to heal from the open wounds of World War II. It had ended a few years prior and many were still dealing with the creeping fear that a powerful force might again attempt to overthrow our way of life. The not so unreal paranoia of take-over was the theme which caused many to relate to this film and many other similar ones of the era. I’ve read countless reviews about this movie and the common thread was always the same. The fact that the movie easily instilled fear in all of us of an impressionable age goes without saying. But the fear that a more ominous threat was on the way, helped the rest of the audience to identify on a level that they all knew very well. 

All these threats were seen through the eyes of a ten-year old actor who first discovered the Martians. He got the crap scared out of him but he finally helped the military to win the battle to defeat them.

All reviewers mentioned the creeping fear but none ever mentioned the look of the actor that played the “head Martian” (this is a play on words because he was basically a head in a glass bubble that the bigger Martians carried around). 

It’s difficult not to see that this guy seemed to be of African-American descent. The belief that the Black man of 1953 might be someone to be scared of was quietly being used in this film. After WWII, the Civil Rights movement was pushing forward and to some this person’s face in the film was probably a little more than disturbing. Especially since he was described as “mankind developed to its ultimate intelligence”. But actually this “guy” was an actress named Luz Potter born in Chihuahua, Mexico. Her name was never mentioned in the credits but neither were any of the other Martians in the movie. After recently seeing Invaders from Mars, it’s hard to remember what all the fuss was about. The visible zippers down the backs of the Martians made me laugh and the long lectures on space travel were boring. I guess the ten year old in all of us will always have a reason to fear the unknown. I guess it’s just a matter of perspective.

Like what you read and want to read more? Check out my website at EndlessPerceptions.com