"The left side was higher than the right, or the right higher than the left, and I could never figure out why this was. I pulled and bent and stretched them this way and that, and only ever made matters worse. Were the arms not straight? Or was the problem the ear thingies? Don't start me on the nose thingies, which have never, for me anyway, successfully discharged their primary task of stopping the bastards from slipping down my nose."
"Contact lenses came riding in like knights in shining armour. Still not much luck with the girls the damage specs had done to my self-esteem was too great to be undone but at least I could see where the ball was on the pitch. Freedom at last. And the specs fell still further in my estimation, being now only used on those desperate, desperate days when I'd lost a lens or got an eye infection."
"Then came the bifocal years when the contact lenses became less up to the task, so it was back to the hated glasses. And as my needs have become more complex, so have the optical remedies. More and more I have to move my head up and down and from side to side, searching out the sweet spot to see whatever I'm looking at in acceptable focus. In this endeavour I increasingly find my head moving in a circular or even figure-of-eig"
Hatred of spectacles began at age 14 and stemmed from shame and practical inconveniences, including blurred vision during sports and diminished social confidence. Glasses steamed up in winter pubs, bent out of shape, and frequently became misaligned or slipped despite repeated adjustments. Contact lenses restored clear vision and mobility but could not undo the self-esteem damage caused by years of wearing glasses. Bifocals later forced a return to spectacles, and increasingly complex prescriptions require constant head movement to find narrow sweet spots of focus. Optical solutions changed over time but continued to introduce new compromises and frustrations.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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