I am near-sighted. It’s not bad enough that I can’t drive, although I do have a hard time reading street signs sometimes, especially at night. I don’t wear corrective lenses, and it’s never really negatively impacted my life in any way.
What it does do is give me a unique perspective on the world. When I see anything in my path, and if I can’t tell what it is immediately, I will naturally assume the worst. Oh, is that an unidentified gray shape on the sidewalk ahead? Well, it must me a dead pigeon. Oh, wait, it’s just a rock. What is that white shape in the road thrashing about? Is it a kitten in its death throes? No, it’s just a white plastic bag rustling in the traffic breeze.
The one exception to this rule is women, of course. I will always assume that they are more attractive at first glance than they really are upon a closer examination. Whoa, who’s that skinny young thing? Oh…never mind, she’s actually eighty.
Sometimes I feel like I live in a different world than the rest of you. A Mr. Magoo world, where coat-racks are attractive women and mailboxes are police officers, and I think about getting glasses or contacts sometimes, but I don’t want to lose this viewpoint. Even though it’s scary and depressing sometimes, I like the fact that I see everything a little bit differently than everybody else.