Monthly Archives: May 2012

Crabby much?

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Cripes.

Yes, I am crabby this morning. I embrace it. I marinate in it. And as the boo-hoo quotient is abnormally high today, I will go so far as to say I’m justified in being so.

I’ve said this before: I think that in order to glean the most from the human experience, one has to, as BFF Kay is wont to say, feel all the feelings on occasion. Some of us feel the need to feel all the feelings quite often, which could explain the high incidence of mental and emotional instability in artists. It’s the reticence to be that big ball of public high anxiety that results in my infrequent blasts of snark on this forum. Gotta release the pressure, or it gets funneled into the choir rehearsal, which is never a good thing.

So maybe I should just go with the research and snark out a curse word to make me feel better (although reading the word “Webicine” just makes me mad all over again). Oy.

Know what I dislike?

  • Rude, inconsiderate, unkind people. Now listen here. I try (I don’t always succeed, but I am constantly trying) to make it so the experience of having contact with me does not make a person want to run away screaming into the night. Or reach for an awl. But even I have my limits. What have I ever done to YOU? (Not you you, but “you” collectively. I know, I know: you get it, move on.)
  • Being able to get to sleep fine, but once I wake up, I’m up (today it was 2:15 a.m.).
  • Verizon Wireless, because they’ve got so many of us by the throat and they know it. Somewhere, Ayn Rand is smirking.
  • The fact that being rude, inconsiderate and unkind is not some kind of misdemeanor. If people were fined — or better yet, jailed — for being mean, we’d see a lot fewer insensitive, uncharitable displays. Either that, or we’d need a lot more prisons.
  • Election years
  • The fact that many of my students can recount with pinpoint accuracy everything that Snooki and The Sitch have done for the last three years, but cannot identify the last three US presidents
  • The fact that we have exactly one weeknight rehearsal this week with the full cast due to athletic events, and learning last night that our lead has to instead go to a meeting for Buckeye Boys State. <insert maniacal, psychopathic laughter by two directors, waving pistolas and jumping off the Cliff of Insanity>
  • Samuel French, for putting out the most hideously written and poorly edited script and score for a musical, and having the unmitigated gall to charge an arm and a leg for the privilege of going through it page by page and making improvements

Oh my, she’s such a drama llama, yes? Yes. I claim it. I corner its market. But please — misery loves company today. Please make me feel like less of a loser and contribute a witty rejoinder about something that bugs you this fine Wednesday. I promise tomorrow’s post will be sunnier if you do.

Sincerely,

A true blue spectacle

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I am not kidding. I’m ’bout to blow yall’s minds. It’s so amazing to me, I had to tell my students about it yesterday, and their minds were blown. Ready? Are you sure? K. Here goes.

You know those people who, when the alarm goes off in the morning, reach for their glasses before even sitting up? I’m one of those people. Or I should say I was one of those people. Ready for the money shot?

Last Friday, I was married to my contact lenses and glasses. Cripes, I wore contacts and glasses (bifocals) at the same time. Yet, as of yesterday, I read music and emails all day long, and today, I am typing this without glasses or contact lenses. And I can see.

That’s the mind blower. I can see — without corrective lenses. Granted, I’m still a novice at this new approach, so I’m not 20/20 yet, but I’ll bet I’m 90% better. And I didn’t have laser surgery. So…I’m sure you’re dying to know…how did I do it? Here’s the answer:

I took off my glasses.

(That’s IT? That’s the mind-blower? Psh.)

No, fiend. With the help of a book called Take Off Your Glasses and See, I am learning to take back my eyesight through an inner refocus; a throwing off of the standard mindset that people with vision problems are A) relegated to corrective lenses for the rest of their lives (or surgery), or B) doomed to poor sight in middle age. What I’m finding is that in the field of vision correction, there’s been no challenge to basic mores: Bummer, I can’t see clearly; guess I need glasses. This doctor, over his 20 years of research, has basically come to the conclusion that most people with eyesight issues are given a crutch (glasses/contacts) right away, and so their eyes — and minds, as pertains to their vision — stop working for healing, as if the brain has absolutely no bearing on the amazing restorative properties our organs possess. The author wonders aloud why doctors and the lay community joyfully accept miraculous disappearances of tumors in terminal cancer patients, but can’t wrap their brains around the sudden ability to see better. Troof.

So I’m sure you’re wondering at this point (and I do have a point), What’s the secret? Well, half of it I’ve already told you: just take off your glasses. The second part is a realignment of your own belief system with regard to your eyesight. According to Dr. Liberman:

Most people who try this [initial] experiment [of going for a walk outside without any lenses] find a noticeable improvement in their acuity. How can simply removing your glasses clear your vision? Taking off those crutches allows your eyes to readjust to seeing on their own. The longer you keep your glasses off, the more you will notice the constant fluctuation of your eyesight. Sometimes, you may have flashes of perfectly clear vision; other times, your vision may appear to be worse. This dynamic fluctuation is a sign that a healthy visual function is reasserting itself after being locked in a rigid focus for many years. Unlocking that focus is the first step toward reclaiming your naturally clear vision.

And this from a guy who started wearing glasses in elementary school, and who now wears no lenses at all — and he’s in his sixties.

I suppose this approach could be placed in the same folder as acupuncture, reflexology, chiropractic and the mind-body holistic methods used at places like the Cancer Treatment Centers of America. I also imagine that, as with any medical treatment regimen, it doesn’t work for everyone. But I’m here today to tell you that it is working for me. To go from feeling blindly for my glasses on the night table every morning to getting out of bed and coming downstairs and reading my email with virtually no blurriness…well, to me, that’s a miracle. A true blue spectacle. And it makes me more sure than ever that the mind-body connection in healing is way more than a hopeful, last-ditch effort. I am living proof that it’s real.

I had a student ask me yesterday, “Could this be all in your mind?” Maybe. But if it is, I’ll take it. Whatever works. And this is working. I’ve thrown down the crutches, and I’m learning to walk all over again. And don’t think for a minute this revelation doesn’t translate to other parts of my life.

Ah, clarity. I’m getting there — hopefully in many ways.

FO