Day 147: Get your eyes checked regularly
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
147 — Get your eyes checked regularly
27-December-1971
(Mon.)
TRANSCRIPT
Back to work.
Morning. Got a registered letter from Andre—made me
feel really good, except that it had money. Pay it
back. As with the previous day, I felt really good
that I had these great friends and relatives. I love
‘em all.
Spend rest of morning in electronic music. Very
frustrating. Didn’t get anything done. Very
difficult.
Spent rest of the afternoon practicing horn and piano
a good deal. Also did some work on stage band [jazz
band] piece. Maybe, if I don’t slough off, I’ll be
able to finish it.
Went home. There were about 6 letters. Read them
all—it was a variety of all good news. Friends saying
hello; info from Mrs. Priesing on Fontainbleu,
Anjali, family; and from Rotary, more money. I really
felt good—that people are writing, the good news. It
makes me feel good.
Really good day.
REFLECTIONS
Christmas
letters. It has now
been five months since I last saw my family and
friends. That’s a long time. As a result, I really
enjoy getting letters from everyone and reading them
to see what is going on in their lives. Thankfully,
I’m very active in school and always keeping
busy—look at how many operas and concerts I’ve seen.
Still, during holidays you miss family and friends
and appreciate their letters and cards. A letter from
Anjali just warms me up.
Click
on the tags. As a
reminder, if you are reading parts of the journal and
I mention something that interests you (Anjali, or
sightseeing venue), look to see if there is a “tag”
either in the right-side column, or below the blog
posting. It is like an index. Clicking on a tag will
bring up all of the journal posts related to that
tag.
Fontainbleu.
One of my
teachers from Montclair sent me information on
Fontainbleu, a music school for composers run by the
famous teacher of composers,
Nadia
Boulanger. At a
later date, I apply for a scholarship to
Fontainbleu and receive a short handwritten letter
from Nadia Boulanger that I forever cherish. I
hope that I can find and show you this letter
before the end of the year.
School
work. A full day
of work, as usual. Practice and electronic music.
School work, practice, study, and learning is often
not easy. We forget our frustrations as we do the
process. (Though, this journal reminds
me
of mine.)
If you’re a student, keep working at it. Learning
takes place and it will help shape the person you
will mature into for the rest of your life. I’m still
curious about this jazz band (stage band) piece—what
was I writing? I would love to hear it.
Rotary
money. The Rotary
Clubs have sent me additional money. Rotary
International has increased my fellowship and living
stipend to compensate for the devaluation of the
dollar back in August. This was generous of them and
truly appreciated by me. Thank you again, Rotary.
This has been, and will continue to be, an incredible
year.
Andre,
a friend. One of my
best friends is Andre. We grew up together as
schoolmates, though not in the same neighborhood. I
remember visiting his home often and the warm welcome
that his parents always gave me. (I believe that I
may have mentioned Andre before in this journal.)
Well, Andre not only sent me a Christmas card, but
some money as well. At this time, he was probably
attending Harvard Medical School. I forgot about this
card and still haven’t paid him back.
With
36 years of interest, it’s going to be a bit of
money. It’s good
to have friends of such quality. Today, Andre is a
tremendously successful eye surgeon. His wife Jodi is
an architect, and they have wonderful children.
My mention of Andre in the journal reminds me of a
very important topic. Your vision, your eyesight.
Although it has nothing to do with this journal, I
must tell this story.
Get
your eyes checked, regularly. I can’t
tell you how much I am indebted to Andre over the
years. Yes, I can. Here are just two instances: (1)
He discovered that I had glaucoma, very early on
while I was a student at Ohio State University.
Glaucoma specialists at OSU were bringing in classes
of medical students to see my “Kruckenberg spindle,”
a form of pigmentary glaucoma. The doctor said, my
friend was very, very good to have discovered this;
many ophthalmologists would have missed it. He
discovered it when it was at its earliest stages. Why
is this important? I used to get my glasses at the
Port Authority in New York because they were cheap. I
didn't have a lot of money. I had never visited an
eye doctor or ophthalmologist. If I had never visited
Andre in his office when he first began his practice,
I would have not known that I had glaucoma. I would
have never gone to an eye doctor for many years.
Glaucoma is a silent eye disease that can suddenly
make you blind. As a result, I have been taking eye
drops for glaucoma for over 25 years and have my
vision today because of this early detection.
I owe
my vision to Andre. (2) Andre
operated on my cataracts early on and gave me back my
sight as well. To this day, when I see other eye
specialists, they always remark how my cataract
surgery was excellent.
Thanks Andre.
John
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