A Successful Black Eye

After I got my black eye, I met with the man who had given it to me.  It was the next day afterward.  I had come to his office for the meeting.  He looked at the black eye approvingly.  He made some notes about it.  Then he had me start reading from an eye chart on the wall.  I was amazed.  The eye was reading four lines better than before.  It was reading 20/20.

We’ve all had experiences with doctors where there was no clear verdict.  They try this, and then they try that.  They do some other tests.  We wait to see if things improve.  Nothing seems to work.  But there in the ophthalmologist’s office we found that a clearly successful outcome had been achieved.  It was like a miracle.  He had stripped off my bandage, and immediately I saw things clearly.

President Obama’s daughter asked him this morning if the oil leak has been fixed yet.

It hasn’t.  They’ve tried this, and then tried that.  They have done other tests.  They have waited to see if things improve.  Nothing seems to work.

It seems to more and more of us that all the things that need fixing are resistant to it.  Our political system, the world economy, our worsening environment, crime and violence, ignorance and poverty, wars that never end.

I started to include our health care system.  I started to say our health care system is broken and need fixing.  Then I realized that the health care system just fixed my left eye for me.  Fixed it good.

So IF you have a good job and good insurance, and IF you find a competent surgeon who’s on his game that day, and IF they have stuff clean of germs and sneaky bacteria, you might just get in and out and be okay.

And be thankful and almost astonished, because we aren’t so used to good news these days.