Seeing Things

Shortly after I got my new glasses I noticed that the thicker frames blocked my peripheral vision.

It took me a while to notice this, actually. One tricky thing about peripheral vision is that when it is partially blocked, your brain fills in the void. I didn't notice what I wasn't seeing. I saw my normal peripheral vision, even though it was obscured by the thick frames of my specs.

I only figured this out after several weeks of bumping into people and working backwards to solve the problem.

In my ordinary life I just chalk this up to an unavoidable concession to fashion, but the problem is especially bad in New York because the city is so compressed. To navigate here you really have to look out. I've been bumping into at least one person a day, and we don't even go out that much.

So, today, having already bumped into two people accidentally, I was on my guard. And so when, during some afternoon shopping, I felt a brush against my arm, I stepped away and turned, and reflexively started into my standard apology.

Only to find that I was speaking to a handbag hanging from a rack in the corner of the book store.