Tools break, what do you do… Seeking W

onder

What do you do when you glass lens just pops out of your glasses and that is your only pair? Well, you continue writing your column even though your screen is blurry. Oh, this shall be fun.

On second thought, I should go downstairs and maybe see if some superglue is somewhere in this building. On a voyage I go...

So with the help of the lovely coworkers who are in the pressroom, my glasses are reassembled. Held together by rubber cement and a rubber band. Ha, if I didn’t feel a little like Steve Urkel at the moment. Now to describe to you as to what happened to make my glasses break. Your guess is as good as mine. It’s a clean break, in the spot, close to my nose but yet not on the bridge. With a rubber band across the lens and closer to the middle, close to my nose, but interestingly enough it doesn’t majorly obscure my view. I believe the phenomena that is happeing is the same as to what happens to your nose; your brain filters out the information and ignores your nose being seen.

Let’s talk about that concept a little more. So your brain actually filters out a lot of information and data that is unnecessary at that current moment. If you were to be aware of all things surrounding you without filtering things out, you would be overstimulated and that could render you, for lack of a better word, “crazy”(and that is an understatement).

One of the cool things to learn with the eyes is that while your brain is filtering out, or ignoring your nose, it is also constructing an image from both eyes creating, or filling in, the remainder of the blocked portion (from your nose). So, even though the rubber band is “in view,” my brain is filtering out that information so I may focus on other data that is necessary.

Another reason as to why I may not be seeing the rubber band so much is that it technically could be in my peripheral vision area. Does someone really know where that starts in conjuncture with your vision? From what the interwebs (https://www.eyehealthweb.com/peripheral- vision) describes it as “outside the center of our gaze” and also “the largest portion of our vision. A normal visual field is approximately 170 degrees around, with 100 degrees comprising the peripheral vision.” So, that means that 70 degrees is the center gaze; however, how does that work for me if the rubber band should “fall” within that 70 degree range?

Answer is: There are three segments of peripheral vision (far - vision at the edge of the field of view, mid - in the middle, and near - just adjacent to the center of gaze). I believe the rubber band would “fall” into the near-peripheral vision area.

So, even though I might forget that I have a rubber band holding my glasses today, I will try to remember when I have to go the grocery store later and I get strange looks... it’s not really me, just my glasses people are staring at.