Cataract Removal

     Thursday I had cataract surgery on the left eye, the long-distance eye. Friday I had a post-op, everything-looks-good appointment. Saturday I took a walk through the forest.
    How the world has changed! I hadn't realized how restricted my world had become. Now, I peer through the trees and can see, sharply, to the vanishing point. I can see the deep clefts in fir tree bark and the tiny, shaggy shingles of madrone bark. I can see the difference in the patterns of bark on pines, firs, cedars, and oaks. I raise my eyes to the tops of white oak trees, where individual lobes of bright yellow leaves are etched onto the sky. Colors, which I had thought bright already, have deepened and glow.

    You know how images in some modern photographs are as sharp in the distance as those in the foreground? That's how it is: an unbelievable clarity, an indescribable depth in the world around me.

    I did an interview years ago with a Marshall Scholar named Geoffrey Tabin, an ophthalmologist who provides free cataract surgery in many developing countries In a video about his work, one man says he was knocked down by a cow because he couldn't see. Another says it was so hard to get to the outhouse he stopped eating. A woman hated being a burden on her daughter, who has her own children to care for. Then the operation. Then removal of the eye patch. Then amazing joy. Such dancing! Such ululation! Such smiles!

    I wasn't running into cows before my surgery, but, yeah, I know why these people were dancing.

    Next month I'll have surgery on the other eye. Then I'll be able to read without blurred vision, too.

Such joy! Such smiles! I might even ululate.