Back to School

 

Back in my apartment, once again sitting in front of my computer while looking out the window ahead at the mango tree as it begins to bud its tiny mangoes, I wonder what I am able to write that might possibly make a difference for me or anyone else; or what I’m able to write (that I want to write) that anyone but a few will even understand. Let’s start with the standard system stuff and see where I end up.

 Yesterday, I went to visit an eye doctor, the fourth one in about three years. The funny thing is, with Taiwan’s national health insurance, I don’t even get charged the usual 3-4 dollars anymore, even for my fourth eye exam in three years.

 The head of the optometry department seemed a little skeptical: “you’ve been here four times,” he said. “I needed to understand the procedure,” I told him. “Now I understand and I want a mono focal intraocular lens put in for sure.” After the eye exams, which I’m extremely familiar with by this time, he scheduled me in for early next month. In case you’re thinking, what could be so difficult about getting an intraocular lens put into your eye?

 Well, it took me three different visits and about three years to figure out why the price always seemed to be double what I thought it should be. Finally, I found out that I would have to do both eyes (including the left one through which I still see fine) if I wanted the multifocal option. Lol, I’m still not sure if I missed something in the translation or if it was just something that nobody bothered to tell me.

 Thankfully, classes (in the classroom) will begin tomorrow, and for this semester, I am determined to be less demanding and more flexible with my students. Why? Because last semester, wherein I thought I was doing these young adults a favor by helping them to learn how to be disciplined, come to class on time, follow the syllabus instructions, etc., by insisting on high standards, I ended up receiving lower evaluation marks from my high level classes, which tells me that my students would probably prefer me to be less demanding. And as the saying goes, the customer is always right. I’ve never really liked being a hard-ass instructor anyway.

 In other news, I’m still somewhat perplexed as to what’s going on in the world. While I understand the technicalities of the mass insanity that has been and will likely continue to spread throughout the world, I’m not yet certain what is going on in relation to the vaccine rollout.

 While it’s clear to me that the virus itself (as far as viruses go) has and will probably continue to be beneficial to human beings (in terms of freeing us from the enslavement of consciousness systems), the vaccines, which apparently aren’t even vaccines as per the definition of vaccines, are still somewhat of a mystery to me. Nevertheless, I feel that the decision to get shot or not to get shot is a personal one that is most likely being made on a beingness level.  Metaphorically speaking, perhaps it’s like choosing the red pill or the blue pill.

In the news, which I barely read any more these days, everything seems more and more senseless – as though the reality of humanity is crumbling. Thus I am focusing more on myself and what is right here in front of me.  As I haven’t been swimming in about five months, I bought some exercise  equipment and have begun exercising regularly in my apartment and walking in the hills whenever I get the opportunity. And the photo above is from the Lunar new year celebrations at my partner's family home in the countryside.