Magnifying Life
I keep a magnifying glass on top of my home inbox. I used to use it to look at the fine print on bills and contracts I needed to review or look closely at. For one reason or another, I don’t seem to need it any more. Not that long ago I went to my Ophthalmologist (an old college friend who always gets me in and out quickly while we catch up on our news with each other). I told her that my eyesight had dramatically improved recently to the point where I rarely used my glasses. She took all the readings and declared me legal by New York State standards to drive without corrective lenses since I am now 20/25. OK, that’s good. Why exactly had that happened? She says it is not unusual for people in their 60’s having their eyes improve. Mine was more extreme than normal, but all good.
My entire life I have worn glasses. Putting them on was the first thing I did in the morning and taking them off was the last thing I did at night. I am still adjusting to not having them anymore. I find myself occasionally reaching up to adjust my glasses only to find nothing there on my face. It is a strange and pleasing change. Maybe there’s a reason this has happened.
Eyesight is one of those things we all take for granted more often than not. And yet few things are more central to our happiness than our ability to see and see well. People do get by without eyesight, but it must take a great deal of adjustment to one’s psyche in addition to one’s general modus operandi. I know a man who is a documentary filmmaker and he is legally blind. Imagine that. You have to admire someone who perseveres in a highly sight-oriented profession despite his waning ability to see his own work. He has become a very good interviewer, and I imagine he would say that he does that better and better the less he can see.
My conclusion is that we all adjust to our circumstances and all the curve balls that life throws to us. In fact, we can probably define ourselves on our ability to make that needed adjustment. If all you can do is hit fastballs thrown directly over the plate, you are likely to be both a very poor player at life and at constant risk for being disappointed.
These thoughts lead me to my views and concerns about our current political environment. I am like that nineteen-year-old kid who takes the word-association test and everything comes back to sex. Well, I am a 65-year-old for whom every word association comes back to politics. I am having such a hard time understanding our current political situation that I keep seeking new perspectives on it to explain it and clarify the way others might view it. I need a magnifying glass for that purpose.
I simply cannot understand how someone can be so myopic as to not see that hatred, nationalism and wealth concentration will lead to the destruction of all we know and love in our country and world. To begin with, hatred and fear-mongering have never led to happiness or even security, so why would anyone pursue that as a viable tack for anything good? I understand why people like Trump use fear, it is a time-tested way to galvanize people to your cause. But what do the followers of this approach see in it for them other than a very short-lived satisfaction?
Nationalism is the epitome of thinking small. No man is an island. No family is an island. No group is an island. No nation (not even England) is an island for long. Islands get invaded, no matter how hard it might seem. I have hanging in my bathroom a replica of part of the Bayeux Tapestry. It says, “Hic Harold Navigavat, Hic Harold Dux”, which depicts the conquest of England by the Normans across the channel. Do nationalists not realize the futility of their goal of being isolated and separate? Stand alone and fall. Stand together and prosper.
And then there is the joy of wealth concentration. Let’s say you are wealthy and getting wealthier. You will quickly surpass what you can reasonably spend in your lifetime and you will start thinking about intergenerational wealth. You will start thinking dynastically. Let’s just say that’s an OK way to think (I could debate that all day long, but I won’t here). What kind of a world are you leaving your children or grandchildren? You feel it might be a privileged world where they are superior and powerful like you. But what kind of a world is it when you have everything and everyone else has nothing? That pretty much describes North Korea. Does anyone really think that’s a sustainable model for the future? My view is that the best thing anyone can do for their grandchildren is to promote a more enlightened and kinder world that has everyone sharing the wealth so that everyone is happy enough not to try and take it all away from your grandchildren. Why is that not rational for everyone?
Let’s go back to eyesight. I find myself wondering why people who espouse hatred, nationalism and wealth concentration are as myopic as they are. Are they so focused on the here and now that they can’t see forward far enough to imagine the failure of their ways? Would a magnifying glass of some sort help?
Back in 1970 I lived in Rome, Italy when Coca Cola did its famous advertisement where they gathered a group of young people on a hillside in Italy and had them sing I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing in Perfect Harmony. To be honest, they didn’t gather young people from around the world, they gathered people who had come from around the world and were in school in Rome. I knew some of those young people. Like all young people we were both optimistic and idealistic while still being firmly rooted in the pleasures of youth in the here and now.
Why can’t politicians take a lesson from that mentality. You can think about the here and now and the future all at once. Maybe it just takes a young and supple mind to do all of that at once. It is one of the reasons I eschew the older candidates as much as I like what Bernie, Joe and Elizabeth say and think. I am more focused on Beto and Pete Buttigieg. I am hoping that they have the foresight to see the future and the present all at once. We need a young hero. We need a Kennedy or Obama.
As for the magnifying glass, I will leave it in my inbox to remind me that myopia can strike at any moment and if not, it might be useful as a blunt weapon against Republicans who might enter my home.