Well. better, anyhow.
Woke up this morning with slightly clearer vision that yesterday. The pretty glittering rings around bright lights are gone.
They looked a lot like this. Only, smaller.
It’s an effect I associate with a filter they put on candles in religious broadcasts.
Anyhow, it’s mostly gone now. I still see a faint ring around very bright areas of sunshine but other than that, I am in the clear.
Which is good, because as pretty as they were, I am all too aware of how they often presage things like migraine headaches and attacks of psychosis and such.
Ever so helpful of my brain to remind me of that yesterday.
So I am glad to see them go. And I don’t feel like I am straining nearly as hard to read the text I am typing on the screen as yesterday, and that freaky “printed on folded paper” effect is gone too.
So phew on that. I may have actually functional vision yet.
In fact I might even do that one better because it is now clear that I see better with my glasses off than with them on.
And Doctor Vaezi told me that when he was done with both eyes, I might not even need glasses any more, but to be honest, I didn’t believe him.
Such a thing seemed too miraculous to be credible. Oh yeah, sure doc, and I bet I’ll have x-ray vision and be able to tell when a dude on the ISS scratches his nuts, too.
But now it looks like it might be a real possibility. It could be that when both of my eyes are fully healed, I can leave my glasses behind forever.
And that would, of course, be amazing. A miracle, even. Wonderful.
But also a really huge change that I am having trouble wrapping my head around.
I have worn glasses since I was 5 years old. To me, they are more or less a part of my face. I have them on 24/7 except when I am in the shower or asleep.
And the problems with shifting away from them have already popped up because despite knowing, intellectually, that I see better without them on, I keep thinking, “Hey, things are kind of blurry, I should put my glasses on!”.
So the urge to wear them is still pretty strong. That’s a habit with 43 years of repetition behind it and it is not going to go down easy.
In fact, silly as it seems, I might end up getting prescription free lenses for my current frames so I can keep on wearing glasses while still being able to see.
I’d rather it didn’t come to that. I’d like to think I can adapt. But I have been a glasses wearing being for so very long that I might not be able to make the transition.
So there might be a big change in my future. Then again, there might not.
More after the break.
Pity the rich
No really. I mean it.
Specifically, pity them the exact same way you would pity a poor person or someone at your own socioeconomic level.
There is no sane or valid reason why it is worse for a poor person to be sad than a rich one. We are all human and we all deserve the same kindness, pity, and understanding.
That is what equality truly means. It means equality even for those we envy. Equality even for those who socially superior position stirs within us the resentment and bitterness that fuels our socially competitive instincts.
We are free only to the extent that we can truly step out of that framework and see that we are all blind monkeys stumbling through the dark trying to find our way to happiness.
Even those of us who do so in a mansion surrounded by servants.
Because the thing is. money truly does not buy happiness. Science has proven this. All the things which have been proven to lead to happiness are things money cannot buy.
Money can’t buy good, true friends. It can’t buy you the respect of your peers. It can’t buy you a spouse who truly loves you or kids who respect you or parents who give you their love and approval. It can’t make you respected by those in your field or give you a place of trust and respect in your community.
At best, it can fashion extremely crude simulations of these experiences, which the rich then quite pathetically invest in and believe in because they, too, have been fooled by society into believing in their own omnipotence.
But it just isn’t so. When it comes to all the things that truly matter, the things that actually do lead to a happier life, the rich are no more powerful than any of us, and face terrible challenges of trust and understanding that would cripple any of us.
Above all, know ye this : when you withhold love and understanding from those above you, you are proving them right. You are in effect saying, “You’re right, it is and always will be a war between your kind and mine, we really are out to destroy you, we really do view you as inferior and contemptible just because of your socioeconomic status, and any and all things you do to protect yourselves from us are totally justified.”
The enemy is the system. not the people trapped in it. Only when we step outside all our hierarchical instincts and cede ALL our bigotries that we can truly be the united and harmonious humanity that we all deserve.
So open your heart and treat those above you as equals. Hold them to the same standards as you do everyone else. Give them the same love and understanding that iu would give them if you were their best friend. Let go of ancient hate and learn to see even those above you as human just like you.
\You might even find that some of them are grateful for it.
I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.