Silence Looks Pretty Good

I can't remember just how old I was when I started to wear glasses, but I think it was around when I was 13 or so. I don't remember being self conscious, but I would have been the only 13 year old in history not to have worried about how I looked when I entered high school. I didn't have a very strong self image, so it is possible that I wouldn't have worried because I knew no one would be looking at me.

 

I don't even remember what led up to my needing and getting glasses. I suppose it would have had something to do with poor grades in school, the theory being that since I couldn't see what was written on the chalkboard then I wouldn't understand what was being taught. Pretty good theory, but since I did equally poorly or even worse once I got the glasses, it didn't hold much water. I suppose my discovery of the mind expanding qualities of recreational drugs didn't help the grades either.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkwJ-g0iJ6w

I do remember what a world of difference there was when I first donned said glasses. Suddenly, and for no really good reason, the world which had been blurry and out of focus was now blurry and out of focus. Okay, that was the drugs, but without the effects of drugs, my world suddenly cleared up. I didn't have to sit with my nose inches from the TV, I did, but I didn't have to. I could clearly see what was written on the chalkboard, I still didn't understand any of it, but I could see it clearly. Ugly people that I only saw at a distance turned out to be beautiful and those good looking people I often saw close up were less than beautiful.

 

I’ve managed to make it though decades wearing glasses and although my sight has become progressively worse; my glasses have increased in strength to compensate. My eyes and the world have made peace with each other.

 

Now, in my sixth decade I find that the same kind of thing is happening again. I have to sit closer to the TV; I don’t understand what people are saying. My hearing seems to be going. I don’t need hearing as much as I needed to see, but I suppose that I am going to need to do something about it sooner rather than later. I can get by with the TV sound turned up, if the people I am talking to are close and even if I don’t hear everything, most of what my friends are saying isn’t worth listening to anyways. I noticed that the songs on the radio have developed different lyrics that don’t make any sense. They still rhyme, but they are even more senseless than they normally are.

 

I have started to walk by the Costco hearing aid section and I am looking at the price. Hearing aids are pretty pricey! There will come a time when the irritation of not hearing the world will be well worth the cost of being able to hear mechanically. Not yet, but the time is coming. I suppose I will have to get bored with silence, and after a lifetime of people talking nonsense to me, silence looks pretty good.