I’m kicking-off today with the immediate admission that I’m going to talk about contact lenses. I know they’re not usual fodder for this part of the show but a recent trip to the opticians really did give me… pause for thought. So here we are! I’ve also gotta add that I once did write a song (back in the good-old-days of Pink Tinge, our girl band with the enforced matching baseball caps) dedicated entirely to the opticians, so this isn’t my maiden voyage when it comes to creative inspiration springing forth from some of the optic admin that comes with living in a human body.
At this last check-up, along with the usual puff of air in both eyes, attempts at reading miniscule letters and gleaning the intel that my prescription has gotten a smidgen worse, the optician suggested that I make the switch to daily lenses. A new lens for each new day. Now I know that when Marcel Proust famously said, "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes”, this isn’t exactly what he had in mind, but hearing this new advice sent my mind heading in that direction and a mental picture of making every-day worthy of a fresh, new pair of these clever plastic discs came to me.
Most of my vital life aids and treasured possessions (phone, watch, jewellery) have stuck with me for years, almost becoming part of me, with little need to attend to them or clock any gratitude for them. But here would be a staple of mine that saw nothing of my yesterday, wasn’t preoccupied with my tomorrow – its only relevance belonging to this present day, crisping up my vision so that I could do it to its best.
When my husband and I got married, the vicar told a story of a jeweller whose gold rings had to be re-spun each day, you’ll have to forgive my hazy recollection of the precious metal logistics (it was 9 years ago) but the point of his tale was to illustrate that we should pay good attention to our most important relationships, replating them daily with new gold.
So, here’s to these little prompts; contact lenses, rings and whatever else… because sometimes it’s the most ordinary of things that serve as reminders of the stuff that’s most meaningful.