Roads to Joy

I was humbled the other day when Anjelica posted a comment about her cataracts.  That’s a cross-eyed bear I have yet to encounter.  But my eyes haven’t been good for several years, so as I’ve mentioned, I took the plunge and accepted prismatic corrections.  It was a delight to get the call from the opticians yesterday that my new glasses were ready for me.

So I stopped in to pick them up, and at first, my new reading glasses made my head reel, as I’d been forewarned, but after a few moments things swam back into place.  It really feels like swimming through treacle as your brain adjusts to the different optical corrections.  It seemed to take a lot less time for my struggling optic-processing neurons to adjust to the distant vision specs. And then, after wearing those for a few hours, the transition to reading glasses with the same prismatic correction was seamless.  It’ll take some few moments, for some time, however, before things adjust up there for maximum convenience.  

But for the rest of the day, to the eventual despair of family near and far, I could not stop exclaiming over the joy of seeing clearly.  It has really felt miraculous.  The clarity!  The detail that’s there, sitting just  beyond my reach for the past however many years!  I thought the receptionist was going to have a conniption because of my warbling delight, but perhaps she’s seen the same phenomenon with other clients.  Why have I put this delight off for so many years?  I blame my overweening pride and a less than capacious pocketbook, actually, but more likely it’s just that I kept putting the inevitable off, finding too many other things to spend on.  

Anyway, I wish I could say I’ve learned my lesson, and that I shall never again procrastinate on measures to enhance my abilities.  But I’m afraid that’s a bit doubtful, that wish.  At least, when I finally acquiesce to this or that assistance, I can hope to experience similar joys over the newly re-realised capacity.   

And, perhaps, when they share in my new joys, when they get in their ‘told you so, man!’ ripostes, my long-suffering family will forgive me for waiting so long, .