Glasses

My days of defying my age appear to be coming to a close. After resisting the growing blurriness of my vision for too long, I finally broke down and got my first pair of reading glasses.

I actually was prescribed glasses when I was 16. It turns out that one of my eyes is larger than the other - to be precise, one eye is far sighted, and the other is near sighted. Weird, huh? I tried getting used to them for a few months, but when I went to the Banff music festival that summer one of my piano classmates came crashing next to me on a grassy knoll, smashing my new glasses in the process (remember that, Jun Fujimoto? Hah!!) Ever since then, I stopped wearing glasses and my eyesight actually improved for some strange reason. I became rather proud of the fact that I could read tiny print music sans corrective eyewear, and would even show off sometimes by reading the music off of another musician's stand several feet away.  

For the past few years, though, I started noticing that my eyesight would get noticibly fuzzy, particularly when tired. Reading music hasn't been much of a problem, I think partially because I've been using digital screens with great backlight and good clarity to defer the need for glasses. And most books read on my Kindle have been no problem either, since I can adjust the font size for comfortable viewing. But reading print books? That's where my eyes met the rub. I have to confess, one reason that I deferred from wearing spectacles was my belief that it was good exercise for my eyes. But as my arms got too short to hold books or hymnals at a legible length, I began to realize that I was reaching the point of no return.

Here's an interesting article from the BBC that points out the fact that damage from prolonged use of glasses is a myth: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140513-do-glasses-weaken-your-eyesight In fact, for children in particular, having corrective eyewear seems to be essential to prevent eyesight deterioration. 

I must admit, it is awfully nice to see music and words so much more clearly now. But it might take a while to get used to the headaches I'm getting from using glasses. And the disorientation from glancing between the music and the keyboard...ugh...