The Moving Finger Writes

To tell you the truth, I almost feel guilty.  Just look at the news.  Misery abounds in this great land of ours.  Sickness and death on an almost unimaginable scale.  The economy has cratered and unless Washington moves fast with relief for the unemployed foreclosures and evictions will commence on a scale not seen since the Great Depression.  

So I confess to a twinge of guilt when I tell you that I basically have new eyes.  The last 3 weeks I have had cataracts removed from both eyes and new lenses dropped in.  I have to say that it 90% painless and the other 10% was easily bearable.  

The left eye was the worst. The doc operated on it a week or so after the right eye and took longer with it.  But even at that I’m guessing that I was only in there for 30 minutes.  The right eye took about 10 minutes.  That’s amazing.  

Last Monday after the surgery M and I were on the porch about 6 PM or so.  I removed the patch so she could put the drops in.  

“Oh my God!” I exclaimed.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

“No,” I said softly. “I didn’t know the world was so bright.”

I’m lucky.  

I have good health insurance and I can handle the extra payment for the special lens in my left eye.   But later that night, I got to thinking about it just isn’t right that everybody in this the alleged richest country on earth doesn’t have access to basic health insurance.  And the Trump Administration is trying to do away with the Affordable Care Act.  During a goddamn pandemic.  With nothing to replace it with.  

This is exquisite cruelty.

I do not discount the fact that I accrued certain privileges in our society not due to my own merit but to my race and sex.   You could throw in some random laughing chance that broke my way that was equally unmerited by me.

I also worked hard, saved money and have attempted to do some good in the world although certainly I have not done all the good I could have done to paraphrase Rev. Mr. Wesley.  So there is that.

The doc says it will take a couple of weeks for my new eyes to get in sync.  My depth perception is a little off and I still get a little queasy if I try to do too much.  I tried to hit balls on the range after the first eye got fixed.  That was a mistake.  I think I’m going to ease back into chasing the little white ball.  But I look forward to doing it without bifocals.  I can see faces at a distance.  I can see the leaves on the trees in the park across the street.  It’s amazing.

Goethe supposedly called for “more light” on his deathbed.  I’m lucky.  I got to see more light on my front porch.

I am in awe of the technology we possess at this stage in history.  I am grateful that they could put it to good use for the likes of even me.

But I confess that I feel a little guilty.