 | Charlie Lessons from Experience |
| Charlie Lessons from Experience |
Have you ever wondered why some people see more than others? I have wondered why entomologists can see more bugs, and botanists can see more plants. It is not that their eyes are better, but their brain has been trained to recognize what they see. I prefer to think that vision is how your eyes work, and seeing is the brain correlating the visual message into intelligence. Having listened to several books on macular degeneration, I have found that others think as I do.
Improving your seeing without improving your vision is a reality. You can do it! I work at it every day, and in the process, I may irritate my wife and bother some frends and strangers. The questions I ask are "What is that?" or "Is that such and such?" This is how I educate my brain to interpret the vision message. When you make a concerted effort, you will be amazed at the improvements in your seeing.
Another approach is seeing by association. You were trained in this when you drove. A yellow diamond sign is a warning sign, a green sign is a guide or directional sign. You can generally separate a red wine from a white one by looking at the color or transparency of the wine and bottle. Fortunately, there are only a limited number of wines in each color. Some names are short or long, and some have two words. By looking at the size (long or short, tall or squat, etc.) you can learn to recognize each bottle of wine. Marketing people frequently make their product easy to recognize by special colors and patterns. Try this out when you are in a supermarket, and see how many different things you recognize without reading the label.
Another way of using association is by relating one thing to another. While walking, the surface goes from light to dark: you are at an intersection, because concrete is light and asphalt is black. A cup is on a saucer, not a plate. You can think of many other examples, then expand the process to other items for identification.
Now how about reading? Some words are long and others are short. Some words are associated with other words. When it comes to recognizing the individual letters in a word, you can train your brain to better separate letters that have similar appearance. Examples are m and n, or p and b, or q and g. You can use flash cards for this. Each card has a lowercase or capital letter on it. Have a friend flash the card toward you and call out the letter. You'll soon find some letters are easier than others.
