online: 10 september 2013 modified: 4, 9, 10 september 2013 3 september 2013 in the woods with new glasses
edge of forest
...blowing an unfamiliar insect from hand into undergrowth... while a running man in yellow t-shirt (with water bottle in hand) responds to the global need or willingness to run amazing distances... often in the city forests of the world... likely i suppose to improve health and lengthen life... though sometimes it may be shortened... as yet we cannot tell...
...when young i used to run long distance (in those days it was 3-10 miles not 'marathons for everyone')... but now i prefer walking... and more slowly than i did...
...and today (as i walk on a gravel path beneath the trees at the edge of the forest) another man runs by... wearing a blue t-shirt... and with unusually smooth motions of his arms and legs...
...and (as i continued walking) i tried out my new distance spectacles to find that i've not yet adapted... the ground beneath me appears closer... as if i am shrunk to the height of a child...it's a weird feeling... the optician said i'd adapt in a week or so... but i haven't... (perhaps i'm not wearing them enough)...
...i often have the impression that the optical part of the nervous system adapts far more than opticians expect... perhaps because they do not examine the eyes in natural surroundings but in an optical lab constrained by narrow visual tests devised to give unambiguous results...
...and here am i writing this beneath an overhanging beech tree in the dusk where the little screen of the handheld lights up the surrounding shadows... and yes, i can now see further into this semi-darkness with the new distance glasses than i can with just the implanted plastic lenses (which replaced the natural lenses which had become clouded)... says the increasingly bionic me*...
*so far with fillings, crowns, bridges, spectacles, implanted lenses, hearing aids...
...not to mention clothing and audio headsets, keyboards, touchscreens, phones, radios, tvs and the increasing number of private or public information nets and transports... many now being automated... (and what have i omitted?)
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