I hate shopping for new glasses. This is partly due to the consequences of not preparing for the inevitable, a lack of foresight. I’m always trying to select my next pair of frames through blurry eyes after an exam which requires pupil dilation. Not being the adventurous type, I have been known to migrate towards the section of spectacles strangely similar to the pair I need to replace. There is a chance that I would be wearing frames from the seventies if those pesky eye-wear companies hadn’t discontinued my favorite style.
    I have been taking notice of the new look of glasses and I’m not sure that I am ready to move forward in fashion. My goal has always been to move away from obnoxious to nearly invisible. Technical advancements that allowed frames to be lighter and stronger and super thin were exciting to me. The optometrist’s assistant tied a pair of titanium frames in a knot to prove to me how flexible yet indestructible they could be.
    That was exactly what I wanted. When designers nearly eliminated the frames, drilling directly into the lenses to mount the hardware, I was ecstatic. The slender little bows were barely noticeable to me or anyone else; the nosepiece was discreet. This is how glasses should be, helping us to see better in a quiet and unassuming manner.
    Suddenly glasses are loud and bossy. They’re red, or thick and black. The bows are wide. The bridges are broad, announcing their position smack dab in the middle of your face. Eyewear has become very dramatic. There is no attempt to coordinate it with our skin tone or hair color. Some glasses really appear bizarre to me, nearly jumping out and yelling, “Look at me!”
    My glasses broke last night. I spent a few minutes groping around on the floor for the skinny right bow which I finally found tangled in my hair above my right ear. I’ve splinted it together with two flat toothpicks and a sleeve of transparent packing tape. It is not holding well, the earpiece keeps rotating outward. It is clear to me now that I should have focused on a proactive approach. Hindsight is always 20/20.