The Closer Look: Looking less Close.

Perception.

I really liked my old glasses, I thought they suited me nicely. But when I was given a new prescription earlier this month, I looked at my frames and thought it was time for a change. The journey I had ahead of me included both opportunity and financial dread. If you have bad eyesight like me, you will know that new lenses and frames come at a premium price. Often getting more than one pair is not a possibility. This puts even more pressure on the one pair you do pick. Your set of frames has to go with every outfit you own. The glasses must be compatible with every level of confidence you could ever display. They can’t make you look too silly or too serious. They need to be just right, goldilocks style.

As I spent a Tuesday morning traipsing myself through six different shops. I quickly grew tired of useless sales assistants and the awkwardness of staring at myself in the mirror. Each pair of frames asks the question: do you look better or worse? Looking at your face for too long is a quick way to feel down about yourself. Thankfully one sales assistant nearer the end of the hour took pity on me. She decided to help with some bulk recommendations. She grabbed twenty pairs of glasses and got me to make snap judgments on each of them. I had decided that a rectangular pair of glasses felt too sharp and decisive. I decided on a thin solid frame rather than wire, I didn’t want to shy away from having the glasses. I decided to go smaller rather than bigger. These decisions went on until we had whittled down the pile to three pairs. All of them were round, all in either dark colours or in tortoiseshell, which is what I have gone with in the past.

Eventually, I decided on a pair of round tortoiseshell glasses. They’re small and have the bridge and temples stemming from the centre of the frame rather than the top. I think that they invoke a feeling of both quirkiness and normality. They seem kind and observant. It’s odd how simple things like shape and style can evoke such a fully formed idea of personality. As a glasses wearer, it’s kind of a gift and a curse that you can choose a five hundred dollar part of your face. Sorting through the different traits each pair of glasses evoked, made me think about the type of traits I would like to say that I have. I want to be observant rather than observed. I want to understand and to be understood instead of polarise (I’m not talking about sunglasses). I want to seem calm and kind over being cool and mysterious.

I received a text two weeks later letting me know that my new glasses were ready for collection. I managed to get them five minutes before the store closed that day. They were immediately on my face and my old glasses were in my bag. I stepped out into the rainy rush hour on Willis St. It was chaos. At that moment I made a profound realisation: Other's perception of your new glasses is nowhere near as important as how they change your perception. The prescription was quite a jump from my old lenses and I needed a bit of time to adjust. The rain was in my face, The lights were potent, body moved quickly pushing past me as I struggled to focus. As I reached for the handle on the bus, my depth perception had of course disappeared. I sat on the bus over stimulated and confused. Our perception of the world is first a tangible thing, rather than a philosophical one. When my sight physically changed, it massively affected how I interacted with the world.

I find it beautiful that the tool we use to correct our perception of the world simultaneously allows us to dictate and have a little bit of control over how we are perceived. Over time our perception of the world changes, and also how we want to be perceived. Aren’t we blessed that unlike our real facial features (the free ones we were born with) our perception has the ability to stretch and grow. Our minds have the ability to see a new each day. But for now, I think these frames will carry me through this next season of life well. Who knows in five years my style and sensibilities may have shifted. I will once again embark on this journey and I might end up somewhere totally different.

Much love, Be Blessed

Jesse.