30 May, 2009

Blindsided, Part 3: Galactic Floaters and the Dead Zone

The Dead Zone.” That’s what Doc E called it. The dead zone started 15 some inches from my screen. There the world blurred and then, in the distance, focused. My bobble doll of a head wobbled to focus the dead zone. Meanwhile pinpricks of black holes and a swirl of a galaxy floated into view as my mind idled on space dock rather than blitzing away on warp speed drive.

Perhaps a rational Vulcan had to remind me to release those external inertia dampers and create.

Drives warp? Vulcan, are you talking about a mythical Roman god? External inertia dampers, are they greener auto parts? Folks active in the everyday have little time to dabble in pop culture, nor catch the phrases of creative fiction. Back in the 1960s, great scriptwrighters caught teens' fancies. We faithfully fiddled with TV knobs, flopped on couches, then turned our eyes off reality to fix on galactic explorations of the starship USS Enterprise.

Nostalgia tugged older eyes to STAR TREK, the movie. Would the new actors be able to say the jargon with straight faces? Could they convince me that they were younger versions of characters familiar as family? Over the phone, my eldest son verbalized his thumbs up despite a florescent glow on screen. I itched to go with the rest of the family that opening weekend.

But days before I awoke to black dots and a curl twirling about my left eye. I ran to the bathroom mirror. No stray eyelash. Not makeup bits. I let fear freeze me. God and my beloved got me to call my eye surgeon who said to come in ASAP.

“Floaters,” Doc E confirmed, along with retinal bruising. A hit must have dislodged protein gels, impeding clear sight as they swam in my eyeball. I learned it could take months, maybe a year or two for these floaters to fade away as my brain learns to ignore them. Meanwhile, I use solar shields into the cinema and as I type to you. Funny how sight centers when filtered of temporal glare and flotsam.

So I live, move, perceive shaded and patient, a bit fuzzy on diamond faith! The letters on this Blog's marquee need not change. I’ll still share with y’all the explorations of the every day. And I won’t need Rome’s fire god to get me off my inertia to move at warp drive.
I’m singing:

Savior, he can move the mountains!
Our God is mighty to save! He is mighty to save!
Forever, Author of Salvation!
He rose and conquered the grave!
Jesus conquered the grave!

2 comments:

  1. The first phrase of your last paragraph reminded me of what Paul told the citizens of Athens, "In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28), and so it is. Praise God for his continuous healing, loving presence!

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  2. I'm finding that I am really getting to like large print. It's not so that I can read without my glasses, but so that I can see around the floaters. I guess cataracts aren't the only thing that make our eyes dim with age.

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