photo block

Friday, July 31, 2020

keep your toes up

I've been finding myself tripping on things a bit lately. Mostly it's more like scuffing the ground with my shoes. Only once did I come crashing down to the sidewalk. I was running at the time so momentum was harder to halt. Trying to avoid head butting a palm tree I shimmied left and landed heavily on my elbow and grazed my knee. Concrete is not forgiving!

But it finally dawned on me as I was walking to the store a few days ago and I again scuffed my shoe on a slight rise in the pavement while crossing the street. My downward peripheral vision has been blocked.

As annoying as it is to wear a mask (and believe me, it's really annoying to run in one) I didn't realize it was affecting my vision. We tend to look far ahead and as we walk and run. Things underfoot tend to pass magically under us. But it's not magic is it? Some part of our brain is still paying attention to that lower field of view.

Interestingly, I don't trip when I'm walking home from the library and start reading a new book on the way. Maybe that creates such an obvious distraction to my vision that I'm paying closer attention, consciously and subconsciously, both.

So I've been trying to focus on keeping my toes up so as not to trip so much. And my knees up. And my eyes up... And my spirits up!

2 comments:

amidnightrider said...

I can relate. For years I have been stumbling so much my family refers to me as a "weeble" They wabble but don't fall down.

Anonymous said...

I noticed this in April when I dropped dollar bills twice in one week at the local market while using the self-checkout. Both times a good samaritan pointed it out to me. Not only could I not see the bills because of the mask, but the fact that I was wearing a mask seemed to make me less perceptive of other senses. In other words, if I had not been wearing a mask, I believe I would have felt the bills fall out of my hand or brush against my leg, but I did not.

I do not know why this would be, as it is well above my pay grade. Also, this was back when I was wearing N95 masks everywhere. I have since purchased a cloth mask that is better form-fitting and MUCH more comfortable, and I no longer feel as unperceptive.