The Eyes Have It
Everyone hopes for a long life, and Americans are living longer than any generation before us. At the end of the 19th Century our life expectancy was 37 years. Early in the 20th Century we were up to 50 years, and currently our life expectancy is 80 years. In 200 years we have doubled our life expectancy.
How can anyone have a beef with that? Well there are several concerns, one being able to out-live our pensions. Another concern is that many body parts fail us one at a time rather than the general systemic failure that our ancestors experienced.
So by the statistics, being 51, I have several years ahead of me, but in the last year I’ve noticed my eye sight is degrading. I’ve worn contact lenses since I was in my 20’s, but now when wearing them I need to employ reading glasses. My eye doctor tells me that contacts will soon be out of the question for me, and that I will need bi-focals. He also said I am showing signs of macular degeneration. Christ, I just cut my pony tail off two years ago, and already the dominos started falling.
I’m not going to list all my age related maladies and ailments here, at least not until I’m a bit older, take up golf and fall in with the crowd that bitches about their health and brags about their grand children in every conversation. But damn it, my eyes are starting to go. I love looking at stuff. I wake up at night just to look at stuff. I beg my eyes to hold out. I want to be able to see things as I draw my last breath.
I have a friend who became blind while in his 20's. He gets along very well. He simply can’t do everything a sighted person would be able to do, but he get’s along very well. He actually does things that I would not be able to do even with eye sight.
I am lazy. I don’t want to re-learn things. I know so little right now and I need my eye sight for as long as possible. I understand that when one loses one of their senses the other remaining senses become keen in an attempt to make up for the loss. I don’t want that. I don’t want to hear better, and I’d rather my hearing go than my eyes. That way I would no longer be annoyed by all the new neighbors and their yapping dogs. Bastards…
Rat Bastards…All of them…
Shit!
posted by The Guy Who Writes This at 5:33 AM
8 Comments:
Hey, my 78-year-old sister was diagnosed with macular degeneration several years ago. But her eyes stopped degenerating three years back, and the doc told her sometimes that just happens, and that they probably won't get any worse now, since they've not changed in 3 years.
Thanks for the encouragement, Donna. I am also taking suppliments to try to stave the decline.
So what sort of horse is that you're hugging on?
Hey, I'll have another historic story for you sometime this week, unless crazy stuff happens that needs immediate blogging attention.
I hear you one that one Guy - I'm sixteen and one half hours short of my 55 birthday (no happies please - I mean, the last time anybody made a big deal of my birthday was when I was 9 years old-get over it). Probably shouldn't have cut off the tail - a man shouldn't be without tail!!
The funny thing is that my eyes were fine until I started wearing glasses about five years ago. My job back then involved reading a lot of fine print and my arms would just no longer stretch any further.
You gotta look at the bright side - as you lose eyesight, more and more women look better "staving" off the need for viagra. A word of caution here - excessive chewing of viagra will give you a stiff neck. Like that "staving" by the way - old Norse for load bearing posts - kinda fitting don't you think?
Aging sucks but I will take it considering the alternative...the way I see it, you should be born old and get younger until you finally crawl back into the woman and become an embryo. Think about it - you start your life out being expelled from the womb and you spend the rest of your life trying to get back in. Sheeit! What's with that?? Some kind of cosmic joke?
Mon ami, I was starting to worry about you. Haven't heard from you in a while. I know my articles influence you and I was afraid the Remembering Some Friends inspired you to do something foolish. Then I feared you were driving under a Canadian bridge... We don't want to find our favorite Canadian missing.
A fine print reader, eh? I bet you were good at that.
That fat horse is a Missouri Foxtrotter. My butt doesn't take well to bouncing, so I prefer to ride a gaited horse.
We are thinking of getting into T Walkers for our aging butts and hips. Your horse is a beauty.
It's because you cut off your ponytail. I turn 40 in 2 months. But I just keep reminding myself that it's better than the alternative.
Sometimes it does come to a point where it isn't. I'm not there yet, but I'm starting to relate to those who see it that way.
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