Column: Something About Nothing, by Julie Seedorf

I was wrong. I will admit I was wrong. After all, Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is coming, shopping has started and … maybe if I actually admit I was wrong to my spouse, Santa might be good to me.

I got new glasses this week, just in time to start my Christmas shopping. I can actually see the price on the tags now without squinting and taking my glasses off. It is amazing how much I thought I was seeing but wasn’t.

That is where the “I will admit that I might have been wrong occasionally” comes in.

You see, I have been a little crabby when my spouse helps me clean. He tells me he cleans something and I know he has, such as wiping down the kitchen counters and the stove. Things get missed. I have been a little crabby because he cannot see close up without glasses. He doesn’t like glasses so he doesn’t wear any close up glasses so he can see.

I have told him that possibly he should wear glasses so he could actually see what he was missing. I will admit now, I will admit now, yes, I will. It’s very hard to do. I will admit that I possibly was seeing-challenged, too. Can you imagine if I was seeing what he missed and I am seeing-challenged, too, what people might have seen when they came to our house? I thought we cleaned, and they saw all we missed.

I realized my mistake the minute I walked in my door with my new glasses and looked at my hardwood floor. I had thought it looked good with the old glasses. With my new glasses I knew I had some polishing to do and some scratches to fix. I knew that I had been wrong in harassing my husband about putting his glasses on. I had mine on and didn’t know what I couldn’t see.

I have a new wrinkle cream that I love. I thought it was working great. It maybe is, but I don’t know what I have looked like before the wrinkle cream because with my new glasses I now know why people have been looking at me strangely when I told them the wrinkle cream was working.

It is possible the wrinkle cream was working because my eyes were getting worse, and that was the reason the wrinkles were disappearing. If the wrinkle cream is working and it might be, I don’t know what my wrinkles looked like before, when I was viewing my vision in the mirror with my old glasses.

I did my nails last night. Afterward, my husband found me staring at my hands. He asked me why I was staring at my hands. I told him that it was amazing how much better my nails looked because I was able to see what I was doing when I was painting them.

My stiff, you had better put your glasses on, attitude to my spouse, also carried the stiffness to my neck and as a result I had a lot of headaches. It was because I was lifting my head and carrying it high, not because I was proud, but because that was the only part of the glasses I could see through while squinting.

It got to be such a habit I didn’t even realize it. If you thought I was stuck up with my nose in the air literally when you saw me, it was because I couldn’t see. I didn’t realize I was doing that until I wasn’t doing it anymore and I woke up with a neck and head that now moves freely and without pain.

Glasses are very expensive when you have Coke-bottle eyes like I do. To get the thinness of the lenses, it costs money no matter where you shop. I learned my lesson. I will not wait five years and put off seeing what my husband is missing when he is cleaning any longer. Just kidding dear about what you are missing, old habits are hard to break. I thought I better say that because Santa Claus will be on his way soon.

In hindsight, one of the reasons I quit shopping, beside the fact I needed to save money, was that it was hard for me to see tags and details. Now the Christmas season is here and I can see all the tags so I won’t be surprised at the register.

I can read all the ads in the papers. I can see my computer screen to find the specials. The best thing of all is the fact that I will be able to read the Christmas Cards and the Christmas letters without squinting.

There is a saying: There is none so blind as those who will not see. It means you cannot make someone pay attention to something he or she does not notice. That was me. I didn’t notice I needed glasses, or I wouldn’t admit to the fact, because I didn’t want to spend the money. It was easier to point out my husband’s lack of eye clarity than it was for me to admit I needed glasses too. My eyes have been opened literally, and I don’t know why I waited so long.

That happens to us in life, especially at this time of year. We see the holiday lights, experience the peace and joy of the season and celebrate all the festivity of December. What do you notice about the days of December that you have been blind to, that you have not noticed before? Maybe it will surprise you the same way my new glasses surprised me.

 

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send email to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net. Her Facebook page is www.facebook.com/sprinklednotes.