Thursday Seeds | Lens not in Focus

I did twirl for this picture to let the camera lens blur on purpose but I got the idea from a previous shot where I thought the camera was off and it did a partial swirl. Then I decided I wanted to do it intentionally.

Deep set eyes, depth perception, and the changes of eyes when we get older are the reason many of us in the 50s are now buying up the market in reading glasses or other optical corrections that otherwise would not be needed. You made it to this age! Good for you! Now here’s a tool. Laser surgery is an option. And perhaps since it has been around a while, it is better and more precise than it was twenty years ago when I didn’t need it. It still seems too permanent. I know that my eyes are not done changing. But that’s my opinion on that.

Why is Apple’s VR not versatile in this realm?  They will change the technology and industry of hearing aids with their earphone tech. (Though not first gen) And eyes? The opticals that are sold separately and are fixed are not optimal. Perhaps there is a directive vision that will in the future address this. But then there could be dependencies of how the market takes to the product to start with and how attention this all gets. If it tanks, no need in revolutionizing that which the majority of the market share doesn’t want. Did any of us really know that we wanted this? Is it a variation of an idea someone else had? Wouldn’t it be cool if it were as new an innovative an idea as the first iPhone?  Oh wait, trello. (I think that’s what it was called.) it was a modified Palm pilot that could make a phone call. Sure apple took that and made it better. 

If the lens isn’t in focus, does it cause us to look for a different way? Is that the necessity that creates the invention? I know an artist friend that advised me to come out of focus visually to see an object differently. It changed the direction of the art I was doing. Suddenly there was some creativity. Lens not focused all the time might not be a bad thing. I’m pretty sure that Ryan Holiday mentions this idea in his version when he wrote the Obstacle is the way.

Maybe you just have smudges. Clean the lens.  Use your tools to do so. No finger prints. 

Tip: the end of your shirt is not the go to place for cleaning the lens. A special wipe works. Water in a pinch but alcohol swab is much better as it dries quickly.

To talk about it all metaphorically, there are many lenses and really just about as many points of view too.  Even if your glasses are clean, if the windows you are seeing through are dirty, then it could mean you still don’t have a lens in focus. If the lens isn’t in focus, isn’t that a blindspot? (The word spot makes it seem like it’s small, it might not be.)

If the waters are mirky from a stirring of the mud, then clean glasses or windows won’t work either. And what happens if we cannot see? I’m reminded of the children’s book by Madeleine L’engle where they end up on a planet where none of the creatures see. They sense from another way. Touch and feel seem to be a part of it, but not all. Belief in this planet’s existence is not the point. 

How would we be without sight? Our whole society would be different. Have you seen the AppleTV series “See”? That one is a story about those that thought Seeing folks were the enemy. That they should be removed. Yet they were, as a seeing person would know, the gifted ones! Sure, they had to trade in some intuitive skills that non-seeing people rely on, but to be persecuted for sight? It’s outrageous to our mindset.  And the idea of it shifts toward change, even if we don’t want it to.

You can’t help but think about what it would be like not to be able to see now. If you are a moral person, you feel grateful. If you are a worrying kind, then you protect it almost in a paranoid manner. These are changes that may or may not even happen. They still sit in your mind real or not.

Another thought is that sometimes a lens not in focus IS the point. In the artistic use of the Gaussian blur, there is math to the use of it. (source wikipedia for Gaussian blur)

A blur is a filter in this case. A way to get down the road without full knowing of what is at the end of it. Because maybe the journey, not the end, is the point. So maybe we don’t have to stress when the lens is not in focus. The only way out is through.