I'm Giving You the Eye

Can Ya See It?

So anyway, that’s not Mars! That’s my right eye!

My optometrist seemed a little surprised at first when I asked him if I could have the picture, but then he seemed excited - like how many patients ask for the x-ray? Not many would be my guess.

Anyway, technically, that’s not an x-ray. That’s called digital retinal imaging. What you’re looking at there is the back of my eyeball. The yellow spot is my retina. (Healthy!) The blood vessels are zig-zagging out of the retina. (Also healthy!)

And the important part is that little round dark spot, to the left of the retina. That’s my optic disc, which houses my optic nerve. That’s the thing that transmits all the incoming data that passes through the retina straight to my brain! (Also according to the doctor, healthy!)

I find this all incredibly interesting!

So, since last fall or so, I found myself having to remove my glasses to be able to focus enough to read. This was super concerning since I wear trifocals and haven’t had to remove my glasses for any reason other than sleeping in a long time.

Driving? Top of the glasses. Kind of close? Middle. Reading? Bottom.

As you can imagine, reading is pretty much my life so the worse and worse it seemed to get, the more worried I became.

Turns out, the good new is my visions hasn’t changed a bit! It’s still terrible, but it hasn’t gotten worse, so we’ll take that win!

The problem it turned out was the anti-reflective coating on my lenses had nearly worn off, something that is apparently common after two or three years. The result was that it’s like I’ve been looking into an increasingly thickening fog, particularly up close.

This all got me thinking about Shakespeare’s famous ‘eyes being the windows to the soul’ line, but recently, scientists have begun suggesting that he may have been right, sort of. Researchers at Orebro University in Sweden studying the relationship between eye structure and personality have found that some of the genes responsible for the development of the iris also play a role in shaping part of the frontal lobe of the brain, which influences personality.

So my eyes could, in theory, be a biomarker that reflects who I am, or have become or am seeking to be.

If that’s the case, while I’m at it, I’m going to get new frames as well. Heck, maybe I’ll get a haircut too, and trim my beard. I don’t know, I don’t want to get to crazy, but on the other hand let’s SEE what my eyes have in store for me!

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Brain Quiz: In writing this story, it occurred to me how many famous expressions there are that use eye in the phrase. Eye for an eye. Turn a blind eye. Bird’s eye view. You get the idea. There’s dozens of them! Can you think of more? Post them below!