You appreciate something more when you don’t have it. I know many people who were athletes in their youth but did not fully appreciate their athletic abilities until those abilities had declined because of age. I know people on strict diets — including someone on a feeding tube — who have a much greater appreciation for certain foods now that they can’t eat them.
This is especially true of people with disabilities, such as when a person loses their ability to walk. And while losing vision in one eye isn’t blindness — a person with one eye can still lead a good life — there are definitely things you appreciate more. For example, I have a much greater appreciation for depth perception sports like baseball because I can’t do them. I doubt I’d have the same level of appreciation if I had vision in both eyes.
Because being blind in one eye does have some limits, I find myself appreciating the little victories when I can overcome my limitations. Here are just a few examples.
When I Successfully Catch Something
If you have good depth perception, it may be hard to appreciate the simply glory of actually catching a flying object when you can only track it with one eye. I technically have a baseball glove, but it’s not something I use a lot because, while I can put my glove in the general area the ball is going to be, it’s just as likely that the ball will bounce off the end of the glove as stay in, especially if the ball is coming in fast from a distance.
So when I do catch something — or, better yet, make a spectacular jump and come down with the ball in my hands — that’s kind of a big deal.
When I Successfully Navigate a Crowded Room Without Hitting Someone
Threading through a crowded area where people are moving in all possible directions is tricky for someone with monocular vision, because, well, you have a blind side, and someone coming at you from that side is out of your field of vision. The only way to compensate is to look around more, but that also means your good eye is less focused on your good side.
When I can make my way across a busy crowd, either in a room or at a water park or at some other venue, and I can do it without bumping into someone, I feel like it’s a small accomplishment.
When I Successfully Avoid a Car Accident
I have been in two car accidents that had something to do with my vision. Both of them were anything but fun, especially when it came to waiting to get the car repaired. So when I am able to see a problem coming and avoid it, I feel a small sense of achievement.
On a related note: I also take a small measure of pride when I meet people with perfectly good vision who have been in more accidents than I have. You’re probably going to say I’m a bad person for saying this. That’s probably true. But it’s nice to know that 1) people with good vision do have accidents and 2) a smart monocular driver can be a good driver.
A second related note: when I’m able to squeeze my car into a small parking space or a tiny garage without clipping my side mirrors against something, I probably take more pride in that than the average person.
A Final Thought:
While I feel like I can live a reasonably good life with just one good eye, there are still some drawbacks that I can’t ignore. So I’ve tried to turn that into a little bit of celebration when I do something small that would be easier for a person with two good eyes but harder for me. I like to think that it represents me overcoming a limitation. It’s a nice feeling sometimes.
I just discovered your wonderful site! I’d stopped searching for a support site dealing with monocular vision. I have long hoped to learn and share coping techniques with others, stuck with this issue!
Many many thanks for your postings❣️
I am stuck in feeling sorry for myself after losing vision in my left eye from an accident. I cant seem to find a way to move on..anxiety and depression have set in and I am getting help with that …but I feel so lost.
Hi Cary.
I lost my eye 7 months ago and know how you feel right now.
The one thing I keep saying to myself is that I can still do everything I love! Drive, run, dance, play sport (now pretty badly at some hehehe), love, hang out with loved-ones, see beautiful things, do beautiful things!
The way you experience visual things like landscapes is now limited… but the rest is all still there! Waiting for you to experience and enjoy!
Much love to you!
Hi, Cary.
I hope you’ve made it this far and that you’re coming to grips with your new way of seeing the world.
I’ve been blind in my left eye since birth. I’ll be honest, it has closed more doors than it’s opened, but I’ve learned that there are ways to adapt and to take satisfaction in the process.
As you’ve probably noticed, It’s not like you develop heightened other senses to compensate. You’re not gonna develop super powers, but you’ll find subtle ways that you appreciate the world that differ from those around you.
You’ve lost three-dimensional vision. If you stand still, life around you probably starts to look like a moving image on a TV screen. You’ll probably look for other signs and indicators of depth. Shadows, movements, objects in and out of focus…
For me, as it always has been, that meant that I appreciated beauty (in art or nature) a little differently than perhaps my fiends or family do. I look a different parts of images, my eye will trace different lines and I’ll reach for different meanings. Landscapes are still beautiful, but less awe-inspiring. Don’t look at the macro, go micro. The real beauty is in the details not the form.
Also, try photography. You may find that you’re much more at peace with images coming out of cameras than you were before. Composing a photo seems to come much more naturally to me than most. Even more so for videography. I’m much more attuned to looking at how patterns of light fall, or the way shadows construct a scene. Unsurprisingly, I prefer photographing objects, shapes and patterns than I do scenery.
I also became an insanely good guitar player, at least in the technical sense. The learning curve was steeper, but once I got used to the fingering on my blind side, I didn’t have to rely on sight to play. It was one instance where my disability led to me able to run rings around able/sighted people who’d been playing much longer than I had.
I got my driver’s license yesterday. Took an intensive course in inner-city Tokyo where I’ve lived for the last ten years. Japan is widely known as one of the most difficult countries to get a license, doubly so if you’re a foreigner. It scared the living excrement out of me when I first went out on the road. I knew that it wouldn’t come naturally or easily, but so I took each element, broke ‘em down and found work arounds for those things that the other leaners were able to do easily. Truth be told I ended up better at parallel parking than the rest of the class. Yeah, so I worked harder to get it. Didn’t feel any less triumphant, though.
There will be limitations, dangers even. Know them. Own them. Overcome what you can and f**k the rest. You’ve gonna be clumsy, you’re gonna drop stuff or loose sight of it when it’s right in front of you. Set things out at home so that when you reach for something you know it’s there. Have a system. Stick to it. Build a comfort zone that you have control over.
Find a passion and then own that too. Try something you may never have done if you’d not lost sight in your left eye. Let it drive you for a while.
You’re a pirate now. If pirates were able to rule the seven seas with only one able eye and a peg leg, then we can overcome.
Make friends with blind people. In the kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man is king. Embrace your new Royal status. Get out there and be majestic.
Odin was blind in one eye and he was the f**king all-father.
Pro tip. If you’re walking with a friend always remind them to stand on your able-sighted side. Keep pestering them until they remember. It removes a great deal of the anxiety if they just comply. Seating in restaurants or at the dinner table too. When you’re in a street, try to pass people on your able-sighted side. In a crowd, people moving on my blind side puts me on edge, even if it is on a subconscious level.
Pro tip 2. Get a dog. No kidding, walking with a mid-sized upwards dog makes everything better.
One last note: when pouring a glass of water from the tap, always bring the glass up from under the flow never straight at it. Taps are foes not friends. I tell you this to save you the money it takes to replace a glass and the time it takes to pull fragments out of your hand.
One absolutely final note: Close all head-height open cupboards if you value your good eye.