So part of being in the U.S. is catching up on medical stuff. I have had a horrible scratch in my eyeglasses for nearly 4 years now! So I went into the doctor's office to get a new exam. The doctor was very kind and thorough. I hate being the guy who assumes everyone with a certain 'joy' in their demeanor is a Christian, so I didn't ask her, but when she saw on my employment history form who I worked for, she asked,
"Oh, so you work for ......[names omitted to protect from search engine caching] ?"
"yes, I do. When I said I only came to the U.S. every 4 years, that is why."
"oh great! My husband and I support another missionary with you guys, who goes to China!"
We spoke for a while about her and her church, etc. It was a great visit. If you are in the neighborhood, Dr. Shui with Winchester Optical is a very nice person and an impressive doctor! Her staff was nice, it was a good visit. My first time there, (they also saved me some money on frames)
That wasn't meant to be a shameless pitch, so much as I prefer to frequent businesses that are missions friendly.
Anyway... she diallated my eyes for a test (on that is included in her standard that I've never had done before)... and upon doing so, everything got really blurry.
She told me all kinds of things (now that you're 40, you can expect this when you're 50)... etc etc. etc.... told me that when I'm 50 I'll need bifocals, only these days they have this non-bifocally looking thing called 'progressive lens' etc.
It struck me that there is a lot of vanity in the area of eye care. I mean, I was standing in front of a shelf of prada eyewear.
I told the lady 'I don't care about looking dorky or uncool, I just like my glasses to be lightweight as these old ones are causing divots in my nose.' Apparently eyeglass tech in the last 4 years has jumped a bit and frames are a LOT lighter (with titanium, and flexi...whatever)
Anyway, as I sat there trying to kill time reading my phone, (which was too blurry) I tried reflecting on the idea that I wouldn't be in that office for another 2-4 years. Whatever else happens this trip, I got that whole EYE exam thing checked off the list.
And that's about as poignant as I got. I didn't have whole lot of time to reflect on much else. I was talking to the staff and enjoying my visit and basically being friendly. I was thinking 'surely there is some huge lesson to be learned in here.' But no one was pushing me more pricey frames... no one was trying to sell me on higher end lenses.
So I didn't feel like I normally do when I leave such a place which is 'wow, people really spend a lot of money to look younger, or cooler, or something-er' but I wasn't struck with that this time, so I enjoyed my visit.
