Slice of Lucy: 20/20

 

20/20

Everyone in my circle has eye issues, from middle-aged myopia to glaucoma to ocular tumors. In my immediate family, we all share the joys of snapping zonules (sounds fun, but it's not) and inevitable lens subluxation. No matter the condition, everyone seems to have the same experience when they go to the ophthalmologist. The doctor measures and tests each eye under prime conditions and announces the vision is "not too bad". This misunderstanding arises from the fact that there is no glare in the room, nothing is moving, and there are no flashing lights or precipitation. This would be akin to testing a new car design in the factory rather than on a test track replete with falling rocks, flash monsoons, twists and dips, and sudden stops. For example, when I take my mom for an eye appointment, she waits until the perfect moment when the floaters drift away to dash off the letters on the eye chart quickly. Seriously, the eye doctor is not actually measuring what she can see on any given day, which is what truly matters. Having removed all obstacles and potential complicating factors, the eye doctor sees my eye as an organ functioning in a controlled experiment. If the ophthalmologist could see what the real world looks like through my eyes, she might not sign that form for the BMV.

This misalignment is not unique to the ocular experience. How about the difference between hearing and listening? The eye sees, and the ear hears, but what is actually processed and comprehended? Anyone who has raised a child or taught secondary school can attest to the fact that a perfectly functioning ear does not a listener make. A passing hearing test will not relieve the stress and frustration of a person who does not or will not actively listen.

Maybe this is the problem with western civilization in the 21st century. We can tick all of the boxes for the requisite devices and access to information, but we can make less sense of anything than ever before. We prime perfect responses to challenging debate in the silos of our homes and echo-chambers of our feeds, but we cannot dialogue with each other in order to find solutions that apply to real problems on our streets. We can tend to business, but we cannot cooperate to build anything beyond our immediate scope of interest or control. We tell ourselves that our days are "not too bad", but we struggle to find meaning in our lives. We are highly functional most days, passing all of the tests we impose upon ourselves in terms of being successful, but we are not actually measuring what matters.