The Way We Were

Last night my husband and I went out to dinner. Our 48-year old waitress was attempting to get used to her new bifocals. She needs one strength to read the computer and put her tickets in, but another to see “things” - like pouring water from her pitcher into a glass. She was having a very difficult time.

I tried the bi or tri focal thing myself, but bobbing my head up and down all day just made me dizzy. So, I gave it up. Now, I carry my prescription sunglasses, my computer glasses, my distance glasses and my reading glasses! I practically need a satchel just to hold my myriad of eyeglasses.

I’ve come to think of my glasses as an extension of my makeup. Consequently, I own many pairs. After all, many of us of the female gender spend an inordinate amount of time in front of the mirror making certain we’re putting our best effort forward. Since eyeglasses can either take away from that effort or enhance it, I opt for the latter. It does get cumbersome though rifling through my purse to find the right pair for the right viewing.

There have been times when vanity won out and I chose to leave the eyes at home. Actually, I haven’t done that in a long time, because without them, quite honestly, everything is either blurred beyond recognition or doubled and blurred. Neither option is acceptable or doable.

For most of us we took our eyesight for granted. Never once in my youth did I give contemplation to the reality that one day I would need eyeglasses to see anything. Ah youth, who was it that said “youth was wasted on the young”? I remember: Bernard Shaw. Memory, that’s another illuminating issue of the aging process. We may know a lot, but accessing that memory when we need it is an entirely different issue.

I saw a television commercial the other day. It was for Cougar Town staring 40ish TV femme fatale, Courtney Cox. She was standing in front of a mirror, flexing muscles that were diminished, pushing a collagen-needy forehead. I found myself smirking as if she had the remotest notions of what is truly in store for her.

Of course we’ll always have our sense of humor, our clever wit, our ever-growing knowledge, our humanity, our grace, our self-confidence (because nothing gives one more confidence than watching everything about us shift before our very eyes), and our boundless creativity. We may not have always been creative, but that’s another thing this aging thing has done for many of us.

We’ve come to learn to be creative because let’s face it, we may want to do things we’ve always been able to do - but suddenly we can not. But nothing keeps a good woman or a good man down - not even advancing age. We’ll find a new way to do an old task because that’s just the way we were wired. Ah, ain’t this aging thing just the cat’s meow? I was accused of not having a sense of humor on this topic. I beg to differ. If anything I find this near hysterical and downright funny!