Month: November 2023

Author James Thurber, who had very poor eyesight, once wrote a hilarious story called “The Admiral on the Wheel” about a time when he was forced to spend a few days without his glasses after his maid stepped on them and broke them.

The Land of Imagination

Far from bemoaning the loss of his sight, he spent those days in a world of glorious fantasy. As he described it:

“The kingdom of the partly blind is a little like Oz, a little like Wonderland, a little like Poictesme. Anything you can think of, and a lot you never would think of, can happen there.”

In his case, he spotted “a noble, silent dog lying on a ledge above the entrance to a brownstone house in lower Fifth Avenue.” It sat there, unmoving, for three whole days. “No ordinary dog could have got up on the high ledge above the doorway, to begin with; no ordinary people would have owned such an animal. The ordinary people were the people who walked by the house and did not see the dog.”

When he eventually got new glasses, Thurber did not want to look to see what “prosaic object” his fantasy dog actually was. He surmised the disenchantment would be too hard.

The Reality of Bad Eyesight

I remember that story very clearly as I have been pretty short-sighted throughout my life, and now that I’m of an age there’s that wretched business of having to use magnifying glasses for the slightest thing, like reading the price of something in the supermarket, or checking messages on my phone.

This has led to the occasional Thurber-like mistake on my part, when I was in too much of a hurry or too lazy to get out my glasses to respond to a phone message, and I’ve received the odd “??” “Huh?” or even laughing emojis [] from friends wondering what on earth my latest message was meant to convey.

I like emojis and I use them a lot, but not always accurately. I once sent a emoji rather than a emoji at the end of a message, which resulted in my friend sending a series of frantic messages demanding to know what the matter was and total confusion on my part. (We are still friends, just, but it took her a while to see the funny side.)

Taking It with Humour

On a (slightly) more serious note, James Thurber – whose faulty eyesight was the result of an accident with his brother when they were children – is a great reminder that even in adversity there can be an upside.

He became properly blind in his later years, which is nothing short of tragic for a writer, yet up until then he still managed to enjoy his “Wonderland,” where a flower pot or an aircon unit could be mistaken for a dog. Or an Admiral with a full-blown beard and in full-dress uniform riding a bicycle can suddenly emerge in the middle of the road while he was a passenger in a car (see the short story for the fuller version).

Thurber’s writing has dated, some of it, and would no longer be considered quite correct in 2023. But he still makes me laugh like no other writer.

The full story about the Admiral and the Dog can be found at https://studylib.net/doc/6645949/james-thurber.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

How poor is your eyesight? Has it provided you with great imagination to compensate? What have you “seen” due to bad eyesight? Have you had funny experiences with text messages and other things where good eyesight is often necessary?

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Photo: @whitneywildrose

Originally posted at: Whitney Rose’s Black Oversized Sunglasses

Photo: @wendyosefo

Originally posted at: Wendy Osefo’s Black and White Draped Gown

I think I’m a bit strange. I dislike almost all presents, whatever the time of year. I don’t much like giving them, and I certainly don’t like getting them. It has been ever thus.

Giving Presents

It is wonderful to give presents to children. You generally know from their parents what they are longing for – and there is such delight when they receive the gift. No problem there.

Once in a while, I realise I am looking at something in a market or shop that someone I know would really like to have and there is again great pleasure in buying it for them. They would treasure it; it would be a surprise. There will be happiness all around.

Nowadays, my family – and I suspect many others – all have an Amazon wish list telling me exactly what presents they would like to receive – which book, which pair of slippers, which annual calendar.

Buying these is rather like doing your weekly grocery shopping. Check the list, buy, wait for the post. No artistry in this. No surprise when the package is opened.

The one benefit is, the person will welcome the addition to their wardrobe or library or whatever and won’t feel the need to send it back.

Getting Presents

I never much liked getting presents either. As a child, there might have been a longed-for item – a special doll or a pretty dress – and when I happened to receive it, there was a moment of real pleasure.

But most of the time, I would receive the wrong thing. My grandmother had good intentions, of course, but was not very good at working out which age was appropriate for which toy. My parents, somewhat surprisingly, were not much better either.

Even when I was a fully grown adult, my mother could not resist buying some dress that she thought would ‘look cute’ on me, which was never to my taste.

Aversion to Waste

I have always known – but it grows stronger as I get older – that I have a strong aversion to waste in all its forms. The wrong present is a complete waste – a waste of money, a waste of someone’s time acquiring it and a waste of any effort I make to wear it or read it or use it however it was intended.

It’s a waste and an embarrassment. I say thank you, of course, but it all makes me very uncomfortable.

The Surprise

So this brings me to the surprise. A few weeks ago, it was a grey afternoon and I was quietly working on my computer when the doorbell rang. We weren’t expecting anyone, so I surmised it was probably one of the charity workers who would come along at Christmas time. I let my husband handle it.

A moment later, he shouted up to me that we had a large parcel. I knew we hadn’t ordered anything, so I rushed down, hoping I could catch the delivery man before he disappeared. Too late for that. My immediate thought was that it was going to be a nuisance to get this thing taken back.

But the parcel had my name on it, so I began to investigate. Inside was a large basket. After removing coloured ribbons and layers of see-through plastic, I realised it was some kind of hamper full of fruit, a variety of chocolates and sparkling wine. What a nice thought on someone’s part, even if it was surely not intended for me.

Oh, and there was a note! I was shocked that it was actually addressed to me, from my lovely neighbours who were temporarily away, thanking me for looking after their house. It was for me, after all. A complete surprise on a grey day. A present I liked. Not a waste at all.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Do you like giving presents? Do you like getting presents? Do you share an aversion to the waste of unwanted presents? Please share your thoughts below!