The Eyes Have It

For many years my family spent Columbus Day weekend camping at Burlingame State Park in Charlestown, Rhode Island. We tried to get to the seashore at least once each time. During one of those walks on the beach we spied a ship off in the distance. My brother didn't see it at first, and I pointed out the large rectangle toward the horizon. It wasn't a rectangle, and within a couple of weeks I had my first pair of glasses.

Which means I've been wearing glasses longer than I've been playing the flute.

Over the years I developed an astigmatism and had my nearsightedness worsen and improve. I wore contacts for many years, even after I needed bifocals. Then I went to contacts for distance and glasses for reading. That worked for a while, but eventually I could only do close work without my contacts in. After trying a variety of alternatives, I found that glasses with progressive lenses were the best overall solution for my work and recreational needs.

As my prescription moved toward bifocals and then progressives, I found myself adjusting my stand so that my music was at a readable distance. Mildly annoying, but not an insurmountable obstacle. When I was in the contacts/reading glasses stage, I'd wear my "spares" (a pair of "mid distance" glasses), especially when performing.

Fast forward to late Summer 2009. Now that I'm practicing daily (well, almost daily) the readable distance issue has become somewhat problematic. If I tilt my head just the wrong way while playing, the notes on the page go out of focus. It's particularly annoying when sight reading or trying to work through a difficult passage. Although, today I noticed it wasn't quite as bad as it has been. At first I thought it was because everything I'd been playing today I'd been working on all week. But then I did some sight reading and some work on a couple of difficult passages and didn't seem to be having as many problems with focusing on the page.

Until I turned my head slightly to look at the next page...

Maybe I'm experiencing the adjustment the optician warned me about when I got my first pair of progressive lens glasses six years ago. Or maybe it's something I'll have to talk to the doctor about the next time I have my eyes checked.