I had my (semi) annual eye exam today. [View all]

[slightlv]

I'm 68 years old. Eyesight is giving me problems, worse lately, so I dragged myself down for the tests. Looks like I've got surgery coming up within a year, but I'll deal with that if and when it presents itself. However, I had a very enlightening chat with the young female aide who updated my info and gave me the prelim exams. She looked like she was in her early 20s, Hispanic, and was very friendly. My blood pressure was high, and I told her I'd never had problems with BP prior to 2016. Now, I've been on BP medication ever since. She answered that she hates Trump, too, and has found herself fighting BP since he was elected. She then said, "but President Biden is so old... for that matter, Trump is, too. They're all old! That can't be good for us." At which time, this grandma began enlightening her a bit against ageism, and reminded her what we, as women, had attained in our lifetimes... and how quickly it's all being stripped from us.

I told her there's no denying Biden is old... but "old" doesn't mean "bad" or "unable." I gave her a quick run through on his political experience that encompassed decades, and especially highlighted his foreign policy experience. She said she didn't realize all that, and appreciates the emphasis on foreign policy, especially since she's Hispanic. I told her tripping over a word, or losing a train of thought, is something that happens to all of us. It happens to us elders more often, perhaps, but we've had a lifetime of experience and learning that exists in our brain, and sometimes it can take an extra effort to pick the correct word that's most appropriate for the situation. It doesn't make us "less than"... in fact, I think it makes us "more than"... because we've got the experiences, both good and bad, that makes for a well-rounded, intelligent human being who can sit down and logically discuss policy, life, and consequences of both.

I also told her I was 68. And I told her when I turned 18, I had just won the right to have a credit card in my own name, or to buy a house without having a husband or male co-signer. I told her that still, into the 1980's, women were being told they couldn't do "this job" or have "that career" because it *might* have unknown consequences for any child she would have -- whether or not the particular woman ever intended to be pregnant.

Told her as I turned the corner into adulthood, I joined the Air Force. So, I was able to represent and fight for my country, but it took until 1974 before I finally had the right to buy my own car without having a man cosign and register it, then *allow* me to drive it. I told her I marched for women's rights when I was in my teens; no way did I ever dream I'd have to be doing the same thing within my own lifetime!

In 50 years, we had lost the hard-fought right to an abortion and women's reproductive healthcare of all types. since emphasis on women's healthcare in general had only happened since the 1980's and 1990's, did she know that up until that time, all testing was done on men? All results were reported on men... all drug tests, all body part tests, etc. Women were not considered important enough to be the subject of tests that impacted their health. And yet, it's now proven that women's bodies react differently than men to certain drugs... even pain killers.

Yet within 50 years we lost our bodily autonomy; our sheer humanity. How long did she think it'd take, if T gets re-elected, for us to lose the rest of our rights - our financial rights, our ability to work in a desired career, to do anything that "might" impact our non-existent childrearing desires? In her own job, the machines she works with could well be judged as harmful to a growing fetus, which means she wouldn't be able to hold that job if the trajectory stays the same.

I didn't want to "scare" this young woman... she was really sweet and intelligent and interested. She asked questions and I answered within my experience. By the time I left, she took my hand and thanked me for giving her this much information. She said she'd never had anyone explain it in such simple, real-life terms as I did, and while she had always intended to vote for Biden, she said she'd now be passing on this information to other woman friends in her group; because she doubted they knew this, either. She said instead of just voting, or just voting on issues based on her Hispanic background, her gender will be more to the front of things in her mind, and she planned to encourage and actually fight for Biden and Harris, instead of just dutifully going to the polls and voting. She called it the "least she could do."

And then this young woman did something that had never happened to me before. She *thanked* me for fighting for our rights back when I was 18, (not thanking me for my service, words that have now become bland and automatic too often) and allowing her to have the life she now lived. Blew me away. I told her she gave me hope for the future, and to hang in there. Together, we WILL make it a better one.

Strange things can happen at eye exams, it seems! (gryn)

Note: edited to clean up some typos.