Online Reporter
Fadzayi Maposah-Correspondent
THERE was a time that I was obsessed with spectacles.
I was in my teen years and I wanted to wear spectacles.
During my adolescent years, wearing glasses was the in-thing. Many wore spectacles when I was in high school. Back then, there didn’t seem to be much variety in terms of the frames that people had. There were huge frames and the effect on the different face sizes was as the East is from the West. Fish out some old photograph albums and see for yourself.
Or you can even look up photographs on the internet. With time, the sizes and shapes of lenses have changed. Now there are so many colours of the frames themselves, some people have more than one pair of spectacles and they change the glasses depending on the occasion. I am a one pair at a time person.
There was a discussion among some people that most people who wear glasses are very intelligent. I guess that sums up why as we were growing up, there was an obsession with spectacles. I also think that we watched too many films where the one who was intelligent wore spectacles.
Back in high school, when someone would have challenges with their eyes, they went home and returned with spectacles.
Of courses, there were moments that we would ask to wear their spectacles just to see how we looked and also how we would see things! Then there would be screams that things looked different.
One person I remember who had spectacles was my paternal grandmother, VaMaMoyo. They were big and round. Her sister wore spectacles too and when they visited one another, seeing them wear the spectacles at the same time was always a charming moment.
A pity that those moments are not captured anywhere, if they are, I do not have the pictures. I do have pictures of my grandmother with my daughters and my siblings as she wore her glasses.
Spectacle habits vary from one individual to the next. For example, I do not pray with my spectacles on. I have observed that others simply close their eyes with their spectacles on and pray. If you ask me why I pray without my glasses, I have no real reason. It is simply something that I do. I know of people who at some points take of their glasses and put them on their heads.
I have seen people do that in meetings, at gatherings, but it is something that I have never attempted. During my exercise routines, I have seen people that I know wear spectacles, exercise without the spectacles while I have mine on. There is nothing that is cast in stone and what works for one person may not work for the other.
I have also interacted with people who do not have good eyesight, but choose not to wear spectacles. You will see them squint their eyes as they attempt to read. Others will say out loud that the font should have been bigger as put up the written document to some light, hoping that the light will help them see better. In some instances, the exposure to light does not change anything.
I remember one colleague walking into a full conference room where all the front row seats had been taken up. The meeting made use of many presentations which were beamed to a screen. Right in the corner very near the back, I could see everything very well. My colleague said he had wanted to sit at the front. Too bad I told him, maybe he should have come earlier and obtained a front seat.
If he could get someone to give up their front seat, then maybe he would end up in front. It was still fine for us to sit at the back, I reassured him. No, he wanted to sit at the front. At that point I told him, I was going to get comfortable and left him to wish that he was in the front where there was no space. As I settled in and arranged my things on the conference table, I asked him why he wanted to sit at the front as we could easily follow proceedings from near the back where we could easily go to the restrooms when the need arose. The answer that he gave me threw me off balance.
He told me that he did not see very well, so by sitting at the back, he would miss out on some words on the various presentations. I was surprised because we have worked together for many years and I had never seen him wearing glasses.
Had he considered seeing an optician, I asked, now well settled as he looked at the front, I guess thinking of whom he could convince to change places with. The answer that he gave me contributed to widened eyes behind my spectacles!
He did not think that he was old enough to be wearing spectacles. By old enough what did he mean, I asked him given that there were children in primary school who wore spectacles? He would just wait until he was a bit older he told me.
Already on my computer as he stood still without a place, I told him, maybe his eye sight would be damaged more by the time he thought he was old enough. I added that some of us were not wearing spectacles because we loved them, but because it was what the doctor (the optician) had ordered. It made reading, seeing much better without struggling.
While the meeting participants followed the presentations with ease, he struggled from where he was sitting. We all have different health issues, being able to read, see with the aid of spectacles is one way of addressing a health issue. Spectacles are not the only corrective measure when one has eye issues.
There are some people like my colleague who think that they are not yet old enough for some procedures which should be done routinely. Taking too long to attend to the issue only compounds it.
While during adolescence we wanted spectacles just for the swag , now we wear them as a necessity. Routine visits to the optician are important. The visits can be for updating prescriptions and also important for unearthing underlying conditions that include hypertension, diabetes, cataracts and glaucoma.
How often one visits the optician is based on various circumstances that include health condition or age. One does not need to be old to visit an optician. Since its June and its Men’s Health month, I wish to challenge men to visit the optician. You may see well or even pick a needle in the hay stack, but just make that appointment and have your eyes checked out. You are young enough to visit the optician! You are one who knows how young you are! Do not wait until you are older like my colleague #Men’shealth.
