Module 9 Personal Reflection: How we see the world can hurt or help

I’m going to the optometrist’s office today. It is not time for my annual eye check-up, but it is time for me to talk with the staff about the new glasses I got a few months ago. I think the glasses may be connected with some pesky and persistent headaches I have been having recently. The glasses may not be the problem, but they are on the list of suspects.

After my last eye exam, I decided to purchase glasses with transition lenses. These special lenses darken in the sun and then lighten when you go back inside. I haven’t particularly enjoyed them for several reasons, mostly related to vanity. My beloved tells me I have beautiful blue eyes, which are now hidden whenever the sun’s rays hit my glasses. I feel badly that others are not blessed by my baby blues when we are outside. Continuing with the theme of inflated emphasis on appearance, every photo taken outside now makes me look like I am wearing mafia gangster sunglasses. If it is true that the eyes are the window to the soul, it appears that I have chosen room-darkening shades. Evidently, I really do not want you peering into the inner recesses of my being.

But beyond how they make me look, I wonder if they might be connected with how I have been feeling. (They may not be a factor at all. My doctor is leaning toward allergies as the likely culprit, but I don’t think you want me to write about the morning and evening rituals associated with sinus rinsing, using a saline solution in distilled water. Who knew you could put water in one nostril and it would come out the other side? It’s a neat trick but not something a person should write about. Oops.)

So, for now, let’s go farther north on the nose and return to the glasses. My experience with the eyewear that darkens the outside world and maybe hurts my head reminds me that it can happen anytime to anybody. How we see the world impacts how we feel and what we do. Sometimes our perspective of people and possibilities is nowhere near 20/20. The problem is not them, it is our poor vision that diminishes or enlarges them, making everything out of proportion. Maybe the first thing we should do when the world looks consistently bleak and gloomy is to consider the lens we are looking through. Perhaps our view is tinted or tainted by our pessimistic perspective or inaccurate assumptions. What if circumstances and situations feel frightening simply because we interpret them through a filter of fear? What if we are responding not to how things really are but to how we perceive them to be?

I recall reading the story years ago about vultures and hummingbirds who fly over the same desert terrain. Vultures are looking for the dead carcasses that they rely on for food while hummingbirds look for the sweet nectar inside a tiny cactus flower blossom. Vultures don’t focus on flowers and hummingbirds fly right by dead animals. They each only notice what they are looking for. And we are not that different. If you are looking for the darker, dimmer, dingier side of life, you will surely find it. And if you have trained your eyes to find the lighter, joyful, peaceful part of life, you will find it.

I am not recommending rose-colored glasses. We need to be able to see clearly so we can act realistically and responsibly. But I wonder if the problems we experience, the hurts we receive and the harm we give, are often due to our limited and distorted view. What we see affects what we do. Perhaps the prescription for interacting with the world more lucidly and transparently is to get a new prescription. I want people to see my eyes seeing their eyes with clarity and accuracy and openness. I’m done with seeing a bright world through dark lenses. I think that how I see the world makes my head ache. I know it sometimes makes my heart ache. May we resolve to change the world for good. And perhaps the best place for us to begin is to clear up or lighten up how we view the world.