{"id":6023,"date":"2021-11-12T09:45:42","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T17:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/ag_blog\/?p=6023"},"modified":"2021-11-13T06:51:31","modified_gmt":"2021-11-13T14:51:31","slug":"looking-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/ag_blog\/looking-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Anita Garner<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>aka Blinky Faye Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you for all the messages and good wishes and encouragement about Monday’s eye surgery.\u00a0 I miss connecting with all of you. Here’s my update.<\/p>\n

A couple of days after surgery the right eye was already showing me things I haven’t seen without glasses or contacts.\u00a0 I glance at the TV and realize I’m reading the breaking news crawl across the bottom of the screen. The left eye struggles to participate.\u00a0 If I cover the left, the right clears up everything, but I don’t want to cover one eye.\u00a0 I want to give it a chance.<\/p>\n

My cataract surgery experience was never going to be an overnight everything’s-all-right situation.\u00a0 All hopes were pinned on the right eye. There’s no mystery here.\u00a0 My left eye has never been a participant in my view of the world.\u00a0 It was a condition that could have been fixed in childhood but I was raised by faith healers and no medical intervention was going to happen in our family. We didn’t go to doctors.<\/p>\n

I’m about to sound like a talking head being interviewed to promote a new book and if you’re interested, there’s much about this faith healing family in my new book, “The Glory Road: A Gospel Gypsy Life.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In the fifth grade an Arkansas teacher sent home a note to my parents saying I couldn’t see the blackboard.\u00a0 Everything about our learning happened in books and on that blackboard. The school insisted I have an eye exam.\u00a0 Meanwhile I was moved to the front row, a ten year old’s least favorite spot in class.<\/p>\n

Daddy resisted.\u00a0 He wasn’t rude about it, but he was ready when the principal called on Reverend Raymond Jones at the parsonage.\u00a0 Back then in the Deep South teachers even came to your house because of missed math assignments.\u00a0 (I heard from a friend.) It was either get an eye exam, the principal said,\u00a0 or I wouldn’t be allowed to attend school.<\/p>\n

My brother and I had always lied to people who didn’t share our parents’ beliefs.\u00a0 We didn’t share them either.\u00a0 Our lies and evasions must have been transparent to adults, but we felt better about lying than about acknowledging one more thing about us that was different.<\/p>\n

Off we went, Daddy and me, to a nearby town to see an optometrist who told Daddy it was amblyopia.\u00a0 Our people called it “lazy eye” which I, the owner of one, did not appreciate.\u00a0 It could be fixed for good, he said.\u00a0 “Nossir,” Daddy said.\u00a0 “We’ll pray on it.”<\/p>\n

With every subsequent eye exam, every increase in prescriptions through the years, someone always said too bad this wasn\u2019t treated early on.\u00a0 If this had been handled by the age of ten or eleven…<\/p>\n

This week I’m grateful for science, for a skilled surgeon, Dr. Esther Manolarakis, for a great medical team, and I’m praising my right eye for recognizing that more work remains.\u00a0 We’re already sharing\u00a0 many positive experiences. Richer colors, improved distance vision, and I’m told there’s more to come.\u00a0 Every day I say to my left eye, Come on girl, you can do it.\u00a0 Just a little more.\u00a0 Every little bit helps.<\/p>\n

I’m still wearing sunglasses in the house some of the time.\u00a0 My computer screen is too bright for the left eye and the brightness display control isn’t functioning so I dictated this to myself on iPhone, found photos on iPad, and will contact a computer guru soon to fix the monitor’s problem.\u00a0 Going into surgery this week we knew the left eye would remain limited but there’s still hope for continued improvement as healing progresses.<\/p>\n

Thank you for checking in. I can’t wait to bore you next time with all the new things I can see.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Blinky Faye Jones in the near future<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

******<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Anita Garner aka Blinky Faye Jones Thank you for all the messages and good wishes and encouragement about Monday’s eye surgery.\u00a0 I miss connecting with all of you. Here’s my update. 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