#call your reps. protest. write letters. do something man. anythign

[simplaertes]

woke up early this morning, and i'm thinking about glasses.

i can't see without them; seriously, the world just turns into a collection of colorful blobs. when i wake up sometimes i delay putting them back on and let the soft edges of the world wake me up slowly. the other day while i was walking to class they slid off my face and fell just over five feet to the ground and bounced along the sidewalk. the world had gone soft when i didn't want it to. i still had to get home--how could i get home if i couldn't see?

luckily, the cheap plastic frames absorbed the shock, and the harsh concrete somehow didn't scrape the glass (or is it plastic? have we swapped this for plastic, too?) lenses. i would have been fucked without the little scrap of plastic.

ten minutes later, scrolling social media while waiting for class to start, i came across that video of the hellfire missile--you know the one. i set my jaw and watched because, honestly, it feels like all i can do sometimes, the picture crystal clear through my glasses.

jesus christ, what do you think people in palestine with glasses are doing? do they risk taking them off to sleep and not finding them when the bombing starts late in the night? if the glasses slide off and break, is there tape around for a quick fix? is the world that i enjoy in the mornings, all soft and fuzzy edges, simply a new level of hell for them when the glasses are lost, and they have to navigate the rubble best they can?

glasses are fragile, delicate things, even if they're plastic and bendy and meant to be durable. they're an accessory you need, something without which many people, me included, couldn't function. how do you square that idea with a warzone? i search for my glasses after my shower when i can't remember where i put them down. do palestinians have to search for theirs during breaks in the bombings? do they shift through rubble looking for the shine of sunlight on glass?

i don't think i can articulate the terror that comes with the inability to see. with losing the one thing that keeps you functional. and i'm in a city and not facing literal occupying forces every moment of every day. the situation in palestine is already horrific and terrifying and every other word i can think of. but now all i can focus on is what they do with their glasses? how do they keep them safe? what if they break and then. well, how do you navigate a warzone suddenly gone fuzzy?

once i cut open my hand while cooking and got blood on the lens. by the time i'd closed up my hand, the blood had dried, and cleaning it out of the nooks and crannies was a bitch. i'm reasonably sure glasses-wearers in gaza haven't even had a chance for the blood to dry.

it seems stupid, i know, but i can't stop thinking about the fucking glasses. christ alive, some people out there are in a warzone, facing genocide, and are relying on plastic or wire to be able to keep the world in focus, just like me. my biggest worry is they'll shatter on the concrete. not be buried under rubble.

my heart goes out to palestine. i'm doing what i can from here. but today, while i'm doing that, i'm going to be thinking about glasses.

#idk i just. what the fuck do you do if you need these things to survive. but they're the most fragile and loseable objects in the world #palestine #call your reps. protest. write letters. do something man. anythign #from the river to the sea palestine will be free