Eyesight
So I was taking a shower today (Don’t worry, this doesn’t get pervy) without my contacts or glasses, and the sheer blurriness made me wonder. How on Earth would people who didn’t have the greatest vision survive in the past before the invention of glasses? Were they just left to fend for themselves/die in the woods somewhere, or did the tribes just decide to beat the person to death because they couldn’t contribute with the finding of food or helping out with other chores because they couldn’t see very well? It all makes you think…if any of us who need contacts or glasses didn’t have them, and there weren’t such things in existence, how would we find things to survive? Would we be walking around aimlessly looking for a variety of blurry colors and walk that direction in hopes that they were fruits or berries? Or would we sit still and hope a bug crossed our path so we could smash it and eat it? And how would we find a mate and, if we did, looks obviously wouldn’t matter since we wouldn’t be able to see them very well, but would they leave us for someone else because we wouldn’t be able to contribute very much survival-wise? It just makes me wonder.
I mean, when I first got glasses (And then later contacts, but I usually wear glasses when I’m home) the world was opened up for the first time for me. Although as a teenager I sat in the back of class for another reason, primarily because I just didn’t want to be there, in grade school before someone figured I needed glasses I guess no one bothered enough to ask why I sat in the back of the class, why I held a pencil in a really weird way, or didn’t listen when I thought the way the leaves grew were incredible. Perhaps if they would have opened up their ears and eyes and figured out that I sat in the back of the class because I couldn’t see the chalkboard and therefore didn’t want to be called on, or the fact that I held a pencil the wrong way because I couldn’t see how the teacher told us to properly hold us in order to write so I made up my own way, or that I thought the leaves grew in really fuzzy clumps as opposed to individually things would have worked out a little better for me during those years. Don’t get me wrong—the early years of my life were the best. I played with my toys, had friends, and everything was great and stress-free for the most part, but I’m pretty sure it would have been a more exciting one if it would have been clearer.
Another thing I noticed is how, when you lack one sense, you truly do gain another. It’s not just “blind” people who have uncanny ears or a great sense of smell, but people who aren’t blind but just have bad vision can develop more powerful senses as well. Although my ears work fine, my sense of smell developed perhaps a little “too” well. When we got off the bus in Oreana, Illinois I could literally smell my mom baking brownies from 2 blocks away when no one else could. Maybe my lack of good vision was the reason I have a more powerful sense of smell. Maybe without the ability to find food visually very well, I would rely on smell to try to find fruit if I was stuck in the wild. Who knows? That might be a distinct reason I would only be intimate with whomever I’m dating if she’s freshly clean from a bath or shower if it’s going to involve any exploring as opposed to just doing the dance with no pants. It might also explain why I have more of a fondness for being around cats as opposed to dogs. At least when you sit next to a cat, pet it, etc., you don’t usually smell anything on your hands. Their fur is pretty much odor free for the most part. Now, unless a person washes their dog incessantly/often, I’m more liable to smell dog smell and to a normal person it may not be so bad. But to me, unless it’s washed often, it’s a sensory overload for this bloodhound nose of mine. And then I just love it when dog owners say, “Oh, it doesn’t smell in here.” Um, yeah….the reason you don’t smell anything at all is because a body’s self-defense mechanism for bad odors is to cut off that smell and no longer smell it. True fact. It’s why some people can get used to being with a person who has bo and not smell it after a while, but to everyone else their nose hairs curl when that person is around. It’s the same reason. Anyway…I’m rambling again….so…until next time.
