I will never ever forget my awesome first-grade teacher. Nor will I forget something odd she used to do. When she needed to take out one of her contact lenses, she would place one of her hands in a cupped position in front of her eye. With the other hand, she would smack the back of her head. Then her contact lens would pop out of her eye and into her waiting palm. Seriously.
When I told my mom about it, she laughed and said I made it up. I can’t say that I blamed her for thinking that way. Fortunately for me, the next time my mom came to the classroom, the teacher smacked the back of her head and out popped her contact. As soon as we got into our car after school, my mom apologized to me.
The next year, I started to wear glasses. While I wasn’t too thrilled about them, I didn’t want to smack the back of my head to take contact lenses. A few years later, my dad bought a pair of contacts. Of course, I asked, “Are you gonna have to smack the back of your head too?” My dad laughed and answered, “No, these are soft contacts. No head smacking necessary.”
We’ll skip ahead to 1986. I was 21 years old and finally ready to purchase contacts lenses. I went to see my ophthalmologist (eye doctor). I had been his patient since I was six years old, so I had a lot of faith in him. He told me someone else in his office would help me find the right lenses for me. After a few minutes, a man I had never seen before walked into the room. Unlike my doctor, he was dressed in a very nice lab coat.
I told him I wanted soft contacts. He responded that we needed to try hard contacts first because I have Astigmatism in my left eye. Then I asked if they didn’t make soft contacts for that condition. He replied that they did, but we had to try the hard ones first. We went round and round like that for a few minutes. Finally, I gave in. I had to since he was refusing to try a soft one until I had tried the hard one. He politely opened my right eye lid and popped the hard one inside it.
I don’t think any words that I can write will adequately describe the pain that contact caused me. For one, my eye burned as if it was on fire. For two, it felt as if someone had crammed a large stick into my eye. My body reacted by slamming my eyelid shut. Then the water literally poured out of my eye. I told the man he needed to get the contact out and get it out right then. That’s when he fussed at me, “You’re going to have to open your eye-lid first.” To which I replied, “Look at my eye. I can’t!” He had to pry open my eyelid to get the contact out.
“If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is in vain.” James 1:26 (KJV)
I am going to be very honest here, I really wanted to yell words at the man. Words that were not very nice at all. But I didn’t. Looking back, I am glad I chose not to do that. By saying them, I would have dishonored God, myself, and my relationship with Him. Nothing is worth that.
There is a bright side to this story. When the man took the hard contact out of my eye, he didn’t smack me in the back of the head.
Brooke Cox is an author, speaker, and storyteller. She was a 2016 Selah Awards Finalist for Debut Novel. Her children’s book: “Dinosaur Eggs,” is now available. It is based on Ephesians 6: The Armor of God. Her novel “Until the Moon Rises: A Conniving Cousin Mystery” is also available. Also, she has two books out in her storytelling series: “Saucy Southern Stories.” The Amazon links for her books may be found on her website: brookecoxstories.com. Please feel free to contact her. She would love to hear from you.