May 2, 2020

A New Standard for Sight

Does 20/20 vision change? The measurement,
I mean. Do the keepers of the standard – whoever
they are – have to recalibrate it every so often?
If I see as clearly now, with as much crispness and
in as much detail, as "the average person" sees from
a twenty-foot remove, what happens if there is a
general decline in sight, if the average sags? If I can
still make out the individual leaves on this poplar
at twenty feet, while the rest of the world slides
into a Monet – not the worst of fates, I suppose –
is my vision improved? By the numbers, perhaps.
But take the opposite case: if, by some miracle
of chance, or by grace, the general populace came
into such sharpness of sight as to be able to detect
the veins of a single poplar leaf at that distance,
to catch the glint of a solitary dew drop as it beaded
and slipped to the leaf's elfin tip, or to glimpse its
fine exhale of renewed air, oxygen lilting out like
a whispered song – would my vision be the worse
for it? I think not. Or, if so, I'll take up painting.