Glasses

I’ve been fitted for glasses in some way or the other since I was a teenager. I never wore them except when I needed to get a driver’s license. I never needed them to read or even drive. Then, maybe a decade ago I got optical stroke in my right eye. This gave me dramatic double vision at first, so bad that I had to send my son, Alex, to the drug store to buy me an eye patch, like some crazy pirate. Within a couple of days, it got a whole lot better. I still get a double when I look at the Moon, but that’s the only place I notice it.

It’s amazing how the mind can compensate for physical defects. Years passed and the double vision of the right eye healed significantly. I didn’t wear glasses.

There was a time when I shot a lot of pistol in tactical matches. It was fun. I had a pair of prescription shades, Ray-Ban clones. I walked off and left them on the table of a restaurant.

Then, in 2023, I had another optical stroke, this time in the good left eye. I walked out on my back porch in the morning and my world was filled with a soft white fog. I had contracted covid and my blood pressure had spiked. I went to the eye doctors thinking I had some kind of infection in my eye that could be healed with the right drugs. “Mr. Weedon, you’ve had an optical stroke in your left eye.” It was devastating. My blood pressure went crazy again. “There’s nothing that can be done about this. The nerve is too small for surgery.”  

So, my vision is Charlie Foxtrot. I had to wait awhile because the strokes can heal on their own, at least partially. I still have a small bit of the double vision from the first stroke but it is so much better than when it first happened. So, I waited, still playing head games with myself about how bad my vision was. Finally, the SO in her infinite wisdom said, “We’re going down to the Eye Institute and get you fitted for glasses.”

It was an ordeal but totally worth it. They numbed my eyes and poked them. I stared into a lot of machines with weird fluorescent lights. I answered a lot of questions about what I could see and what I couldn’t. The answer was often “No.” Ultimately, I got a new prescription: tri-focal progressives (no lines), and a pair of genuine Ray-Ban sun glasses, aviator shades like Uncle Joe. They are single focus for distance, driving and shooting.

I have always resisted wearing glasses. They were a symbol of creeping mortality that I didn’t want to acknowledge. Recently, I have been forced to accept the glasses due to the significant diminishment of my vision. The new glasses are light and easy to wear, and with the changes in my vision, the new glasses are a joy. I had begun to tell little jokes: “Do you need to wear glasses?” “Only if I want to see anything.” There is solid value in being able to accept where we actually are. Being both artist and photographer, the restoration of my vision is huge.

Syd Weedon
1/5/2025