Who would have thought?
Getting older--aging to perfection, in other words--is tough, there's no doubt. Especially in a society that idolizes those who are NOT older, wiser, more experienced. We are discounted every day by those who think it will never happen to them.
Just like we did.
So, when an event like this happens, it shouts to be shared. You deserve to know that some part of one's body can actually get better as it ages.
I got my first pair of glasses when I was ten. And I endured all the mean comments from my classmates: four-eyes and brain jump immediately from my memory banks. Today I guess some of that would be called "bullying" behavior, but times were different back in the olden days. I learned to maintain a poker face, and coupled with the fact that I was moved all over creation as a cog in a Navy family, I knew I would be in a new classroom soon anyway. I was a kid; I always thought the next one would be better.
So, imagine my surprise, and delight, a few years ago when my eye exams began to show something odd: my eyesight was actually improving. I thought that the fact that I was having to blink a lot to read my book meant what it had always meant: my eyesight had slipped a bit more and I needed a stronger prescription. How thick can lenses get, anyway?
Not so, said my eye doctor. It turns out my prescription is headed down the number scale instead. What??!
Well, you know me: I had to research this phenomenon. But all I can find are articles about natural ways to work at improving your vision, foods that promote good eye health, exercises you can do with your eyes (I think I exercise quite enough already, don't need any more), but nothing about an unprompted improvement. The optometrist did tell me that it happens, though; I'm not weird or anything (OK, OK, stop the jokes). But it didn't occur to me to question her in more detail at the time, even though my vision has shown improvement for the past five or six years. Now I'm really curious, though, and will keep searching the Internet to learn more about it.
But, we don't have many chances after 60 to find some part of our bodies that haven't turned on us so completely that mirrors are forbidden in our homes. Especially anywhere near where we change clothes.
But new frames with thinner lenses? Maybe some day I can go look up all those mean kids and flaunt the new look.
Getting older--aging to perfection, in other words--is tough, there's no doubt. Especially in a society that idolizes those who are NOT older, wiser, more experienced. We are discounted every day by those who think it will never happen to them.
Just like we did.
So, when an event like this happens, it shouts to be shared. You deserve to know that some part of one's body can actually get better as it ages.
I got my first pair of glasses when I was ten. And I endured all the mean comments from my classmates: four-eyes and brain jump immediately from my memory banks. Today I guess some of that would be called "bullying" behavior, but times were different back in the olden days. I learned to maintain a poker face, and coupled with the fact that I was moved all over creation as a cog in a Navy family, I knew I would be in a new classroom soon anyway. I was a kid; I always thought the next one would be better.
So, imagine my surprise, and delight, a few years ago when my eye exams began to show something odd: my eyesight was actually improving. I thought that the fact that I was having to blink a lot to read my book meant what it had always meant: my eyesight had slipped a bit more and I needed a stronger prescription. How thick can lenses get, anyway?
Not so, said my eye doctor. It turns out my prescription is headed down the number scale instead. What??!
Well, you know me: I had to research this phenomenon. But all I can find are articles about natural ways to work at improving your vision, foods that promote good eye health, exercises you can do with your eyes (I think I exercise quite enough already, don't need any more), but nothing about an unprompted improvement. The optometrist did tell me that it happens, though; I'm not weird or anything (OK, OK, stop the jokes). But it didn't occur to me to question her in more detail at the time, even though my vision has shown improvement for the past five or six years. Now I'm really curious, though, and will keep searching the Internet to learn more about it.
But, we don't have many chances after 60 to find some part of our bodies that haven't turned on us so completely that mirrors are forbidden in our homes. Especially anywhere near where we change clothes.
But new frames with thinner lenses? Maybe some day I can go look up all those mean kids and flaunt the new look.
Every time I think that I'm getting old, and gradually going to the grave, something else happens.
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