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

So shines (another) good deed…

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… in a weary world. Just when you think all hope is lost.

I had my (only) pit band rehearsal yesterday afternoon, mostly to make sure the guitar player, whom I’d neither met nor heard play, was going to be OK with everything. I mean, Grease without a guitar is like, well, Grease without a guitar player.

I should have figured it out when I got no response from the reminder email or the two texts I sent before the rehearsal. The rest of us were there, but…yeah. No guitar player. Bam. Fired. Now what? With son Lars unavailable for that time period, I didn’t know where to turn. Good guitar players always seem to be in glut-like supply, until you actually need one.

Seamus and I discussed an alternative, but I decided to fling out my net as a desperation move and ask a former student (who now lives in a town 75 miles from the school and works for Best Buy) to rescue us.

He said yes.

I am in a state of both total disbelief and indescribable gratitude. So that is one glacier-sized worry off my plate, making room for the 326 other things. You know how that is.

Twenty-seven days. Yes, I am now officially one of those loozer teachers who’s counting — along with every student. :-)

FO

Hey, I’m still here

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Wow, it’s been a few days since I visited with you. Too long, in fact.

Oy.

This could be a long day, followed by about 28 more. Twenty-eight. That’s my magic number. Count down from 28 to 1 and I’m done. Hey, thanks to my fiends for the cool suggestions from a couple of posts back. I really do appreciate them. The next two weeks will reveal much, about us and them. It’s going to be a good show — now the job at hand is to make it a great one.

And speaking of shows…time to get back to some work before I leave for my rehearsal at noon today. Thanks for hanging in with me through the lacy posts as well as the meaty ones. I’m savin’ it all up, you know. After this show closes, you’ll need an hour and three cappus to get through this place.

:P

Valuable lesson

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Had a 3.5-hour meeting yesterday with some cool people. Much was learned and shared, but you know what was the biggest thing? The power of forgiveness — both giving and receiving — is bigger than any of us can imagine. It’s bigger than any job, any boss, any issue, any personal pride, and being right.

That is all.

The bright, elusive butterfly

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in·spire, vb.  to exert a stimulating or beneficial effect upon a person; to animate or invigorate

I know some people who need a little invigoration today (myself included), and my partner in crime Stoney and I are running out of ways to provide it. We are three weeks out and things look a little on the ho-hum side. Grease is such a popular musical, one would think it’d be hard to screw it up. “People will love it anyway!”

Um, nope. That don’t play in Peoria. Or Greenwich, Ohio, either.

How does one inspire a group of students, most of whom are so incredibly overextended they can barely keep up with homework and sleep? I mean, I’m all for trying new things while in school. I’ve often told my students that this will likely be the only time in their lives when they can do fun stuff and not worry about paying the mortgage or working a 10-hour day after the fun stuff is over. So do it now, while you can. But for some students, it’s become an obsession: do not only as much as you can humanly fit into 24 hours, but also be involved in absolutely everything so as to not truly excel at any of it. I can’t imagine the stress these kids put on themselves.

How times have changed. My parents would have never allowed me to be away from home from 7:30 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., no matter what I was involved in. It seems now that if you’re 17 years old and not stressed to the hilt, pounding down Monsters or coffee like there’s no tomorrow, you’re somehow not pulling your weight. Being beyond busy = cool. People…there’s a limit, seriously. What happened to perspective and balance? I’ve known busy students; I know some now, too. They make it work. But they’re not so overburdened that they can’t handle it and end up sucking at everything. I’m seeing more and more of this phenomenon, and it’s troubling. But excellence is still expected, as evidenced by the sale of 350 tickets in a 2-hour span at the box office last night…

So how does one inspire these young people, who come to rehearsal after everything else in their day is exhausted? We get them when they’re tired, hungry, sore, mad at the coach, behind on their homework, and sometimes after having lost a heartbreaker of a game. Think of that mental state. Then we expect them to be brilliant onstage. And sometimes, they are brilliant.

This ain’t one of those times, trust me.

So, most esteemed and insightful fiends: how do we inspire them today? What do we say? How do we add to their load and lighten it at the same time? Maybe it’s a problem with Stoney and me. Maybe it’s never good enough for us. Oh, boo hoo, stop whinin’. It’s Wemsday, which means it’s almost Finkday. Yay! (Still, I covet your articulate and compendious thoughts on this subject.)