A Bad Eye Taught Me Love

You may have heard of iritis. But probably not. It's an eye disease that creeps up out of nowhere, and you wake up one morning with a charming blind spot and an eye as red as fire. I'd post a photo, but...

This was my situation two weeks ago. It's nothing serious, except that if left untreated, you'll lose your eyesight completely. I didn't know this or I would have felt my way into the doctor's office much sooner.

I learned that, when considering a trip to the emergency room, my first thought should be who I'd call to take me there. Even when it's 2AM. I drove myself to the downtown emergency room in the middle of the night, with a bad eye. Upon walking in, I found the only other person in the waiting room to be a crazy man all huffy about receiving no service. When the security guard told him to fill out a form first, the expletives began, and he threw the clipboard and his wallet through the window at the nurse. Effective. Before I knew it, three armed guards surrounded him and the minute he reached for his pocket, they pinned him to the floor. He was escorted offsite...while his wallet remained on the other side of the window. Guess who had no wait?

The extra protection is not the only reason I should've called my family. My coworker asked me how I would respond if my mom had driven herself to the emergency room in the middle of the night when my dad was out of town, and she hadn't called me. I got hot just thinking about it. Just because I could make it there by myself isn't the point. Even though I was trying not to cause a scene by calling them, it communicated that I didn't need them or want their help.

Independence isn't always best, especially when it alienates you from people who love you and denies them the chance to do something meaningful for you. I realized that to let someone help isn't saying that I can't do it myself; it's telling them you want and need them there because it's them and you love them too.

Pardon this twisted Love Day post, but this is the kind of love I've been thinking about lately. And my eye is good as new (nothing a few steroids couldn't fix).