Over the weekend, I had the misfortune of having ripped a contact lens, with no replacement available to me. I was about two hours away from home and hadn’t brought a pair of glasses with me either. My eyesight is bad enough that I could not go the entire day wearing just one contact lens without having other repercussions (in the form of an extremely bad headache). So I resorted to what seemed like the best option at the time- I took the other lens out and went sans vision enhancements. This is something I haven’t done in years. It was definitely disconcerting even while only dealing with the world inside. When I ventured outside, it was nearly frightening. I was astounded at how little I was able to see and read. Naturally I wasn’t doing any of the driving, but I was shocked at how difficult it was for me to even be able to see that there were letters on the street and highway signs, much less be able to read them. All the street lights and headlights looked like huge lit-up snowflakes. It was all I could do to even keep my eyes open.
I tried to look at it as an opportunity to engage my other senses more intensely. It was actually pretty difficult to do as I was so focused on the ill state of my ability to see. Perhaps I am more moved by my sense of sight than I ever realized.