This has been a great year of learning so far. This month’s word – legal.
It is a word I know, and have found myself doing things over time that skirted the boundaries; so technically, it is really more about its use in a specific context.
I have been a lot of things in my life, but only three times have I been told I am “legal”. When I turned 18 – the legal age to drink way back in the day…then when I got my driver’s license; and finally, two weeks ago when the eye doc told me that new prescription lenses required to read the blurry charts on the wall would allow me to still be legal to drive.
I have been acutely aware that my vision was not all it should be, the there is a growing sensitivity to light, increasing haze – the rising numbers after the first 20 instead of 20/20. The care I had to take at times, turning my head just right to keep my progressive lenses from distorting the stairs, or something on the ground, causing missteps…all fun.
It does have benefits, not gonna lie. I can step out of the shower without glasses and still look good (okay, I just lied – I don’t), the wrinkles smooth themselves out and…well, that’s about it.
Anyway….
There I sat in the dim room, frowning, with no glasses on my face. Legal playing over and over in my head like an earworm song as I struggled finding words to respond.
“Legal, uhhh okay.”
I put on my current glasses to judge the expressions during words that would be spoken after the obligatory question.
“What are you saying, I can’t drive?”
“NO, you will be fine with the new glasses that are being prescribed.”
“Whaaaaaat?!?!”
I can only guess that the look on my face left a need for more explanation because the doc sat back and smiled before saying I was ok.
“Let’s talk about your cataracts.”
And with each word, each description, each phrase – I heard exactly what I had been suffering spoken back to me. It was enlightening and exciting, except for the phrase “when the cataracts are ripe” (seems like a terrible term for something bad in my eyes!!!), that felt wrong. But I will let that go for now.
Then it was explained while usually reserved for those much older, there was a procedure to make them better. They could be removed and I could see clearly again.
I left with more questions than answers. I mean eye surgery…cutting my eyes…top five fears definitely includes losing my eyesight, so cutting and eyes….it was almost a no but I took some action and listened to experience.
Made it home and Google helped me to understand the procedure and the benefits…my friend Raymond told me about his wife’s experience with the surgery…then a new friend, a retired teacher I met during some filming (who wasn’t wearing glasses!!!) said it changed her life.
Fast forward…went to another doc/surgery visit last week…we scheduled a day for the left eye, then for the right eye….and now I will soon be getting a “legal (that word again) to drive without glasses” procedure. They also said ripe in relation to my eyes…ewwwww.
I am scared, hopeful and scared. But I want to see better while I still can walk and find my way back home. Absolutely certain that I still have a lot of stuff left to see…..
So I am about to go into a new month learning something new every day, devouring all that I can in this world…writing about it…and with fingers crossed, by the end of September, I will be legal without wondering when my eyes are ripe…still a freaky way to describe what can be a debilitating condition; just sayin…
Topwater Moon 