Off-shore winds yesterday. Meaning, no kitesurfing at the beach.
There is a lake though, a bit inland. Full of patches of seaweed, with questionable gusty winds, a road with power lines adjacent, and just all around entirely not confidence inspiring.
Right from the start I knew it was a bad idea.
Of course we went out. And predictably it was a shitshow. All the dropped kites, all the getting wrapped up in seaweed, all the cursing. It took an hour to make it back to the launch spot, with amused fellow kiters who’d been sitting there snickering and debating who’d have to go rescue Jakey’s failed attempt at taming a lake kiting experience.
Ole Jakey looked like Old Gregg, scaley manfish, covered in mud and seaweed. (if you don’t know Old Gregg, I don’t know you)
But hey. An adventure, and zero temptation or opportunity to play on screens.
Every day that has an adventure, is a blessing. And I’ll also tell the story again that I like to tell often. About doctors and opinions:
Your favorite old guru’s parents were medical doctors. Mom a pediatrician, dad general practitioner.
Brilliant, kind, patient, you-want-these-for-your-diagnostic-needs, type of professionals.
Listening to them talk about their patients thousands of days at lunch and dinner tables, priceless insights. Mom hated pills. And frozen food. She’s unplug our freezer to sabotage any frozen food efforts attempted at our house. She’d always preach about eating right and not reaching for pills, unless last resort.
Dad on the other hand loved the pills. To him they were ultimate-victory-of science, solutions to everything that might ail you. You couldn’t talk him out of it. He loved meeting the Pharma reps, learning about the latest thing to fix a condition.
Two entirely different approaches to health care, under one roof. Plus countless entirely opinions, experiences, and bias.
What I got out of all of it: If you go see somebody, don’t expect truth. Expect to get whatever the person believes, whatever they were taught, whatever makes sense to them at the time. Truth in health is often fairly elusive and possibly requiring personal experiments and exploration. And there’s always some new discovery, some new diet, some extra special unicorn supplement, a thing that somebody makes a living from if you buy it.
Sometimes it’s good, sometimes perhaps less entirely ideal. Not so much black and white.
When it comes to myopia, glasses, eyesight, the relative truth is highly unprofitable. Unpopular even. It’s all about agency, personal responsibility, facing realities of (screen) addiction, having the time and know-where-to-look to question the vastness of mainstream doctrine. You either believe that you’re genetically defective, or … you really are going out on a limb, figuring out what else might be going on.
Not something anyone would be expected to dive into. Which is why glasses, contact lenses, laser surgery still entirely rule the conversation.
I’ve met optometry types that are like my mom. Telling you to only wear glasses when you need them, giving you the lowest diopters that still work for you, talking to you about spending time outside, away from long close-up periods.
Rare as they are, they do exist.
The types like my dad, far more common. They’ve got a business to run, first and foremost. Selling you $5 glasses for $200 is what pays the bills. There’s no time in the day to question what was learned in school, or to explain long, complicated principles to people who just walked in, probably looking for a quick fix. Supply and demand. Most people don’t want to be told that their habits are the problem. They want to be told that it’s the gene’s faults and they can just keep consuming endless meaningless piles of content on a tiny screen forever.
(Memorable and worthwhile) life so often happens when you leave the comfort zone. When you start asking questions and living with purpose and not giving in to being told how you’re just genetically a failure and that you might as well just do as you’re told.
Maybe. Or maybe your favorite ole Jakey is a fringe creature full of unpopular opinions and the urge to do things the hard way.
Here’s somebody who is doing eyesight the hard way:
Props to him for taking on this rabbit hole.
A rabbit hole that might offer its own rewards.
This, not for everyone. This also from a weirdo who spent decades vagabonding around the world, flying paragliders past the Himalayas and kites in the Pacific, building off-grid houses in rebel held jungles and in general living life like as if it were a one time only, limited time gift from the darling universe.
Reasonable to assume that weirdo hippies aren’t ones to take general purpose lifestyle advice from.
Anyone is free to spend that life scrolling some Chinese video app on a little screen. Really, it’s entirely encouraged. The large corporations who sold you the phones, and provide you the free apps, and pay for all the ads and “journalism” articles and divisively flavored Twitter opinions. Ask less questions, consume more narratives. Be incensed, but mostly about nothing meaningful. Default cultural context. Stay disposable, be figures on a spreadsheet.
Or maybe … stay weird, darling kittehz. Find adventures. Go make some 20/20 gains.
Cheers,
-Jake
