There is a little piece of plastic in my eye. And what a miracle it is. This little piece of plastic has changed my life. It helped me escape the teasing comments of childhood peers, opened the door to sports, and granted me the luxury of wearing sunglasses on sunny days.
It was not always this way. 200 years ago I may have helped invent Impressionism. At -10.50 myopia my uncorrected world looks very similar to those created by Monet, the precise lines of 20/20 vision replaced by smudges of color and light. 5000 years ago, had I survived, maybe I would have been chiseling ornate designs into clay or rock. Designs whose complexity would baffle the modern observer. How could such intricacy be accomplished without modern magnification they ask? But the near-sighted know that magnification is no problem if the object is close. Beyond such artistic pursuits, I would have been worth very little. I guess I could scratch a line in the dirt and fill it with seed, but what a sad, fuzzy life to lead.
But over time humanity learned to manipulate light through a lens. Some choose to look to the stars, others finally saw home clearly. They kept improving these lenses for clarity and consistency until one day it was asked: “Why not put one on the eye?” First, they were glass, but soon they were made of plastic and silicon. But before this could happen, other humans had to create a whole new substance from the world around them. And yet more humans designed machines that could manipulate these substances into small disks of varying powers. Then they did it by the millions. So every day I can put in a new lens and see. Not only can I see, but I can see in the same way I did yesterday and the day before that. I can even see like the person next to me, yet they do not know my simple fortune. Now, doctors can take a Collamer lens and put it behind my natural lens. Incredible.
So, when the world looks bleak and you are sitting in the subway reading about melting ice caps, disease, and the bifurcation of reason, just raise your eyes. Look to those around you and consider that one of them may see in a way that nature had not intended, but humans designed.
It’s not all bad.
