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August 8, 2000
THE EYES HAVE IT -- AFTER 32 YEARS
The unfortunate thing about many stereotypes is that they're often based on a kernel of truth.
| My third-grade teacher knew I needed glasses because she saw me squinting to make out the writing on the blackboard, even though I sat in the front row. |
After all, all my life I saw around me Asians wearing glasses. I got my first pair of glasses in third grade, when I was 9 years old. My older brother Gary and younger brother Glenn both glasses when they were also young. My mother and father got glasses, though they needed theirs when they were older. And though I'm making a blanket statement, I swear most of the Asians -- especially the Chinese -- that I know personally wear glasses. I don't know if the reality of statistic supports this, but it's certainly something I accepted as a fact of life.
For years, I was even told that the Chinese invented the eyeglasses centuries before Europeans. However, I've learned that though the Chinese did have a sort of spectacles 2000 years ago, they were designed to keep out evil spirits, and not to correct eyesight. The first historical references to spectacles with corrective lenses mounted in a frame balanced on the nose came in the 13th century.
And they've been part of human civilization ever since, balancing the need for utility with the need for fashion. If you're one of the lucky ones who have perfect vision, you have no idea what it's like to have poor eyesight, and to suffer from a inferiority complex both because you feel inadequate and unfashionable.
I loved to swim when I was young, but hated one thing about those hot summer days at the community swimming pool -- not being able to see the faces of anyone around me. If one of my friends called my name, I would squint and try to make out who was calling, and from where. I couldn't even tell if it was someone in the pool or on the edge outside the water.
My third-grade teacher knew I needed glasses because she saw me squinting to make out the writing on the blackboard, even though I sat in the front row. The school gave annual hearing and eyesight tests (I wonder if they still do that today, with much tighter budgets and tangled priorities), and that's when the doctors discovered my sight had deteriorated. I don't remember my first prescription, but I do know it resulted in horrible glasses -- heavy black plastic frames and lenses as thick as the proverbial Coke bottle.
Later, I found out that even John Lennon of the Beatles was nearsighted and needed glasses. But early in his career, he was told not to wear glasses in public and in performance because it would reflect badly on his image as an idol. In public, he wore Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses, which made him look cool. Only later did he begin wearing the trademark wire-rim specs of the 1970s.
My yearly school portraits show a gallery of eyeglass styles: The black plastic of the 1960s gave way to various metal frames. They were all stodgy and square-shaped and had thick metal bands to hold in those Coke bottle lenses. I tried the type of lenses that would darken in bright sunlight and lighten in the dark. But the change was too slow for my needs, since I was a school photographer, and it was always disconcerting to go from taking pictures outdoors to inside a building. After high school, I changed to lighter plastic lenses so my glasses wouldn't slip down my face all the time, and as a college student.
In the 1980s, I began wearing round eyeglasses. My early '80s look features gigantic round plastic frames that covered most of my cheeks and made me look like a raccoon. The lenses were even thicker because of the size of the frames -- the bigger the area covered by the lens, the thicker they got towards the edges. Then I finally settled on a series of round wire-frame glasses, with smaller lenses which were thankfully thinner. Technology also allowed lenses to become thinner and still do their job. Earlier this year, I got my smallest-ever frames, which were oval-shaped. The lenses were the thinnest yet, but because they were so small, I noticed my blurry peripheral vision more.
I had long since accepted the fact that for the rest of my life, I would have put up with such trade-offs, and that I wouldn't be able to read the alarm clock in the morning unless I leaned a couple of inches from it, or unless I fumbled around for my glasses first.
But I recently changed the one thing I had been identified with for 32 years. I got rid of my eyeglasses and got Lasik laser surgery to correct my vision. The procedure is becoming increasingly popular and less expensive. It only takes about 15 minutes to "zap" both eyes, and the surgery wasn't bad at all.
My eyesight isn't perfect yet -- it takes at least two months before my eyes settle into their new shape, and that's when the doctor will declare me done or schedule an enhancement to finish the job. But it feels miraculous already to be able to see that alarm clock in the morning. I haven't gone swimming yet -- my doctor says I can't for another month or two -- but I'm looking forward to it.
And believe it or not, the one thing that has given me the greatest satisfaction since I had my surgery was being able to walk into a sunglass store and purchase a pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarers, since I always needed prescription sunglasses or awkward clip-ons. I've always wanted a pair of Wayfarers, but didn't want to buy the frames just to put expensive prescription lenses in them. I've never been able to just buy a pair of sunglasses. Now, it's a grand feeling to be able to put them on when I step outside.
This style is remembered mostly today because Tom Cruise wore them in the 1983 film "Risky Business" but for me, Wayfarers represents the ultimate cool look from the 1960s.
Somehow I think John Lennon would agree.