Claire had cataract surgery on Thursday. The good news is that she can see very well; the bad news is that when she asks me to do something, I have to be a lot more accurate.
Cataracts are the most common cause of vision loss in people over 40. There are at least three types of cataracts: sub capsular, nuclear and cortical. You can look them up if you’re really interested in the differences, but they all affect the lens of the eye and cataract surgery basically consists of placing a new lens in the eye.
Eyes are very complex organs. There are seven main parts in the eye that play a role in transmitting information to the brain, detecting light, and focusing — a problem with any of these parts means a problem with you vision.
I’ve heard it said that eyes are the gates of your heart. They express everything — be it love, anger, dislike, grief, etc. Eyes say a lot without speaking a word. Actually, eyes don’t express everything but they are very revealing. So called body language experts rely on the eyes as an integral part of their “readings.” The way a person looks at someone reveals a lot about what they really feel, and the intensity and direction of their stare can reflect a person’s thoughts. Glancing sideways may show romantic interest or flirting in a subtle way. Avoiding gazing at you indicates that the person could be lying, or feeling guilty or uncomfortable about the subject being discussed. Gazing regularly at you generally indicates a positive, inviting attitude, open to communication. Prolonged blinking (like blinking in slow motion) indicates the person is losing interest (or maybe feeling sleepy?) Excessive blinking may indicate a person is showing romantic interest, or a sign of stress —or — they could be lying…
We refer to the eye in lots and lots of our everyday idioms and phrases, like:
…there wasn’t a dry eye in the house — something said that means that all the people in a particular place were very sad about they had seen or heard and many of them were crying.
…the eye of the storm — the center of a disagreement.
…a bird’s eye view — a view from a very high place that allows you to see a large area.
…give someone the evil eye — to look at someone in an angry or unpleasant way.
…keep your eye on the ball — give your attention to what you are doing all the time.
…have eyes in the back of your head — to know everything that is happening around you.
…not bat an eye — to not show any reaction.
And most of us have said or heard….
bedroom eyes, a gleam in the eye, a roving eye, a sight for sore eyes, an eye for an eye, easy on the eyes, eye candy, in the eyes of the law, in a pig’s eye, some shut-eye, the apple of my eye, or more than meets the eye.
And then of course, I only have eyes for Claire, wouldn’t want to be in the eye of the storm, or in the public eye, or have the wool pulled over my eyes, but sometimes I have bags under my eyes after I’ve flown on the “red eye.”
We’ve all heard that it’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open and babies are all color blind when they are born. But did you know that seeing is such a complicated process that it requires about half of the brain to get involved. The average blink lasts for about 1/10 of a second. Men are able to read fine print better than women. The cornea is the only living tissue in the human body that does not contain any blood vessels.
There’s been some memorable quotes about eyes over the years, such as: “Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes” or “You never know how you look through other people’s eyes” and Benjamin Franklin once said, “Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, and half-shut afterwards.”
A lot of proverbs have been based on the eye over the years, such as:
• The eyes can do a thousand things that the fingers can’t.
• The face is the portrait of the mind; the eyes, its informers.
• What you don’t see with your eyes, don’t invent with your mouth.
The eyes are one of the many things we take for granted and don’t appreciate until there’s a problem, but of all the senses, sight must be the most delightful.
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