There’s an old saying that time heals all wounds. But time also levels mountains… changes the course of rivers…. and crumbles cities, no matter how well built. Time flows on without end. There’s nothing a mere mortal can do to stem that inexorable flow of seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and years. The strange thing is that the human mind, for the most part, is usually so occupied with not only the day-to-day realities and demands of everyday life, but also the aspirations and dreams and goals that are the constant undercurrent of its thought processes, that the effects that time has on the body surrounding that mind can, to paraphrase John Steinbeck, steal in on little cat’s feet. And so, while it doesn’t MENTALLY feel as though I’ve lived 42+ years– my body has been, in recent times, TELLING me that it’s been that long. As I’ve said in past posts, the hereditary ‘gift’ of degenerative lower back problems, combined with 13 years of spending almost every day hunched over a drawing table (as well as the computer these past several years) whizzing by has brought on increased back pain and caused me to seek relief from a chiropractor. Fortunately, the good Dr. Krasnov has been able to help me to a very large degree and I’m now able to spend almost as long as I’d like at the drawing table these days. It wasn’t that long ago I was forced into laying flat on the floor staring at the ceiling between 45 minute pain filled sessions at the table.

Over the last several months, I’ve had another problem. It had become harder and harder to focus on what I was working on. When I first started noticing the problem I would begin drawing and after only about 10 minutes my eyes would blur… sometimes even cross. And I was experiencing burning, itching eyes… and they felt tired all the time. It didn’t matter what time of day it was, or whether I was working or not– my eyes felt as though I’d been awake for 3 days straight. The problem continued to get worse and worse. By the end of this past week, it had gotten to the point where I couldn’t work at all. I thought it was the fact that I use a light box for my work….. and I tried another method of creating the finished pencil pages this past weekend. That ended up being a complete disaster and a waste of time (the page got done… but it took 3 times as long to do this as it usually does for me to finish my work). I had also noticed that I was having increased trouble reading before bed. I like to read a chapter or two of a novel before falling asleep, and that was becoming more difficult as well. And so this past weekend, I decided to get my eyes examined and see if there was something that could be done to help me. As it turns out, I needed glasses. It seems I’m extremely far-sighted (which, at least means I won’t have to wear glasses or contacts FULL-TIME)– and I have an astigmatism in both eyes (the right being the worst– the Doctor told me that my left eye had been carrying the bulk of the load for some time). And so I now have to wear prescription glasses to draw and to read. I can tell the difference already– my eyes haven’t felt tired or itched since I started wearing the glasses.

I’m glad that I’ve been able to find the proper fix for my problems as time takes its toll on my body…. but I can’t help but wonder what the NEXT challenge I’ll have to deal with will be. I know they’ll be coming. It’s inevitable.

Like time.

This is Entry 164.

Mike

This entry was posted on Monday, November 21st, 2005 at 5:39 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.