making sausages

*No actual sausages were harmed in the writing of this blog post.

I have become very interested lately in how things are made, for a variety of reasons:

1. Understanding. I think there is a lot in this world that people mystify that needs to be understood; otherwise, it's all smoke and mirrors and The Man behind the curtain. Things turned out better for Dorothy once she pulled back that curtain, don't you think?

2. Learning. How can you do something if you don't know how to do it? You learn. "I'd love to be able to [fill in the blank]." Well, if someone here on planet Earth has figured out how to do it in the past, then it's probably learnable. If it hasn't been done, maybe you can piece together things that have already been done to make that New Thing.

3. Economizing. As with haiku and minimalist design (I didn't harm any of them in the making of this blog post, either), there's something to be said for maximizing the little things. Two examples: I find that I want to know how pages get printed in order to try to write to accommodate that and not waste paper; I find that I want to find alternative uses for things I already have in order not to waste resources. 

4. Curiosity. I believe in curiosity for the sake of curiosity. I know bad things happened to Pandora and the Cat, but curiosity is a way of approaching life in a vital way. If you know it all, have seen it all, life becomes ennui-laden and frankly dull as dishwater. Why settle for that? If you know it all, have seen it all, that's you limiting yourself because there is always more out there.

So back to my awful sausage analogy: if you learn how the sausages are made, you can decide whether or not that is something you actually want to eat with all available information; if you learn how the sausages are made, you can make your own and not have to rely on someone else to do it for you; if you learn how the sausages are made, you will understand how to waste nothing and use everything; and

If you learn how the sausages are made, you'll be sure to be a hit at cocktail parties when you satisfy the curiosity of your fellow cocktail party-goers who didn't even know they were curious about where all those cocktail weenies come from.

you can't see what they see

I had a new experience on Wednesday: taking my son for his very first eye exam. He had failed his school vision screening, and then failed his rescreen. 'Fail' is such a laden term, but that's what they call it when someone doesn't or can't pass.

So the exam began with the reading of the letters --pretty standard stuff. The instruction was, "Read the smallest line you can". He had never failed his screening before. He is doing fine in school. I wasn't worried.

He couldn't read any of the lines. At the ends of the lines, I could see a 20, a 30, and a 40. Huh. Not even the 40?

Next screen. Same instruction.

Nothing. And this time at the ends of the lines there were larger numbers to go along with the larger font sizes.

And so on.

Around the mid-100s, he attempted lines and missed some of the letters. He could read them all in a line that had a 200 at the end of it. 20/200. For both eyes.

He had been functioning with eyesight like mine without glasses.

Needless to say, I felt like a horrible parent. How could I not have known? There were indications, but they were really subtle and I didn't realize what they were until now. Because hindsight is 20/20. Get it? Moving on ...

I think people have areas where they function but they seem like they have no difficulties to the outside world. The term 'high functioning' is used a lot. We only see the outside presentation. We guess that everything is okay because we don't know. We only know there's an issue going on inside if 1) the person tells us or 2) it becomes such an obstacle that they can't cover anymore.

You can't feel guilty about not seeing signs in the past, because that was the past and you can't change that. But if someone tells you they are having a hard time with something, you might want to listen. And if there are signs of struggle, like my son and his vision test, you should definitely intervene --in this case, by asking for help from a trained professional.

My son doesn't want glasses, but he did pick them out and I hope he likes his choice. Sometimes, what's needed is not what's wanted, but in the long run, it works out better. If you need rest, medicine, glasses, hearing aids, help, ...there is nothing wrong with that. May you get what you need, and have a great day.