Clarity and the Free Metaphor to Anyone Who Wants It

Let's start with some lighthearted banter.

I just got home from the grocery store. They put my gallon of milk in a grocery bag. Like... what?

Now we'll dive in to the metaphor.

In 2006 I got my first pair of glasses. You should put them on. If you think you don't need glasses, you should put them on. The prescription is so weak that it doesn't do anything. It changes your vision just enough to make you think you're seeing better.

I wore them... briefly. I wore them when I wanted to put off that appearance. But pretty soon, they didn't fit my style anymore and I focused on everything I hated about the glasses. Namely, the nose grip thing, that grips my nose. It pinched, when I took them off, my nose was red, and when they were on long enough, it gave me a headache.

So I stopped wearing the glasses. It wasn't a big deal at first. It really wasn't. It wasn't like I *needed* them, remember? My prescription wasn't strong enough in the first place. The difference was unnoticeable in how I perceived the world, but at least the annoyance, upkeep, and pain was gone. And now I fit in how I wanted to fit in.

The years passed. About 8 years. I didn't really wear my glasses at all. Occasionally, when there was an occasion. Like really needing to read the writing on the board. Joseph and I started playing a game, called "Lara, if you had not gotten to a point of being pretty good at guessing what that distant word says, if your vision hadn't progressively decreased, you just all of the sudden had bad eye sight, what would you think that word says?"

It was pretty hilarious.

Or, when driving, we'd pass street signs and I'd announce loudly when I could read it. It was almost always too late. I'd have to turn on my GPS when driving so that I knew for sure when to turn. Especially when we moved, we were in a new place.

So, I decided to get some new glasses. My old ones didn't work for me anymore. I'd put them on and they still didn't quite work like I wanted them to work. It wasn't doing the job for me that I needed.

I went to the doctor, she told me I indeed did need glasses. I wouldn't run into walls without them, but my quality of life would be improved with them. The order was put in, and my new glasses came!

It was weird at first.

An important thing is that for some reason, during pregnancy, I can't use my glasses for up close things. They are literally just big picture tools right now. My eyes won't adjust fast enough to be able to process the close things with the glasses on, so for now, I can only use them for distance.

I decided to take my glasses out for a day on the town, or rather, just a drive.

And it was beautiful.

It was weird at first. It felt unnatural to see such detail. I was getting more information than my brain could process. It made me slightly dizzy. But when I took them off, the lack of information was disorienting as well. I couldn't live with them, and I couldn't live without them. So I decided to make a choice. I made the choice to make a choice. The choice was to live with them. After about 30 minutes of being outside, I was able to handle them. The information started making sense.

I've always though Arizona was beautiful, but I didn't know how beautiful. How perfect the clouds look. The details on the mountains off in the distance. The clarity in the lines and the colors.

I'm a glasses person now.