Among the things I did on my birthday was going to the eye doctor for a much needed check-up and even more needed new pair of glasses. By way of context, there is a posting titled "Life With Walleye Vision" that provides something of a backstory. Anyway, my old glasses were really old and it was a time for a change. Vision checked and new glasses ordered/delivered. In fact, I'm actually wearing the new specs as I type this screed.
There is, of course, more to this current version of the story.
Books.
For well over a year now, I've had trouble reading books. And I love reading books. The trouble part isn't a lack of books...I have plenty, thank you very much. No, the trouble is a combination of glasses that were old and kept sliding down my nose, which caused some issues with how I see things, amplified by the near constant staring at computer text all day, and sometimes into the evening. Most of the latter relates to work (as in what I do for a living) stuff. The net effect of it all has been the fact that, by the time I could take some time to read a book, well, my eyes were as fried as a corndog at an Iowa state fair.
I've know the above has been an issue for this entire time, so why didn't I do anything about it? That's a damn good question, and I can't think of a conclusively good answer. My running theory though is that much of the proceeding months, going well back into 2023, have been difficult for me professionally. Not difficult as in "I am worried I will get fired", but actually quite the opposite: I know I am doing good stuff and I have a habit of becoming almost fanatical about getting that good stuff done. This sets in motion a kind of spiral of work taking over more and more of my life. Before too long, anything that doesn't fit into the work world...and my eyes were working more or less just fine for the work stuff...became less and less important. This includes books, and even more important other things.
I don't blame the above on my employer or anything related to my professional work for that matter. No, I own this, 100%. Part of what I think is getting lost in the overly litigious, entitled world of today is the fact that freedom comes with consequences, especially for doing stupid things. In retrospect, not having a greater sense of balance in my life is probably even more stupid than wearing 4 year old glasses (when I have Walleye Vision).
I could dig deeper into this, thinking about how I was summarily retired after nearly 28 years at one employer, laid off post a corporate acquisition by an incredibly incompetent VP of learning at another, and becoming a work casualty of COVID. Losing 3 jobs in a row, when I look back on things, is an adult-sized portion of crap to unpack. Maybe my hyper-focus at work has something to do with an unspoken fear of yet again falling into some employment chopping block. This, by the way, is highly unlikely at my present employer. Logic though rarely is the driving force behind deeply emotional reactions to life events.
Focusing* back on the present, I've had these disassociated thoughts in my head now for a while, but writing this down is the first time they've actually come together into anything that remotely seems coherent. Writing...like reading books...is good for the soul.
In the here and now, simply knowing a thing is a bit like being good at bar trivia, as in it really doesn't matter. The truly important part is what one does when having learned a thing. For me, that means getting some balance back into my life. This is my work in progress.
(*) Obligatory eye pun.
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