9/19: sight

Hi Friends:

As I write this, my mother is just getting out of lazik surgery. Last week, she had her right eye done, and this week she's doing the left eye.

She's worn glasses since she was a girl, and, in my opinion, her vision's always been pretty bad (said with affection). One of the sounds of my childhood was the click of my mom's eyeliner pencil against her vanity mirror because she had to get thisclose to see enough to put her make up on without her glasses; when my kids pretend to read things, they hold the book or paper or whatever up in the air and tilt their heads at different angles "to see it"--doing an impression of how my mom will read something, first through her glasses and then over her glasses, and then through her glasses, and then over her glasses.

But last night, with only one eye done, she was trying to get the kids to pick up rice that had fallen to the ground while they were eating dinner. "There!" she said, pointing, "You forgot one--right there."

And then she went, "Ha!" really loud.

When I think about it, my mother has never really seen me, or my kids, or even my father. That doesn't mean she doesn't know us, of course. But I wonder how different her perception of us will be, now that she can see us. You may not be getting lazik anytime soon, but I hope you find the opportunity to see things around you differently.

Ok, have a good week, and see you tomorrow? 530-630 @ nuuanu elementary.

-meredith