World through a pinhole

You know, I am short-sighted. Ophthalmologically speaking. My eyes started to lose the grasp in the 4th grade. Back then I was too shy to wear them eye-crutches (somehow the silly juvenile gregariousness told me to stay away from the dangers of being called four-eyes), so the myopia progressed and when in high school I finally dared to put the glasses onto my nose and look the world in the face, beautiful images with multiple details revealed themselves to me, enthralling me and shattering the almost established (fuzzy) picture of the world, sharpening the edges and adding delicate and fine pieces to the now miraculously finished jigsaw puzzle of the universe. Ah, that’s how it’s supposed to be, now...

Since then (and reluctantly back before that) I tried to find the cure. My mom made me do exercises that bored me witless, I read brochures of laser clinics, and I slowed my gait at the windows of the stores selling those glasses with holes drilled in their black plastic lenses. For some reason for about 10 years that those glasses were in the market I only wanted to try them out, but never actually got around to buying them.

But now life hung a twist and, like greatness to some folks, thrust a pair of pin-hole eyeglasses into my greedy sweaty hands. Now, I was not looking for easy ways, and I laughed at the opportunity to fidget with such specs in a drug store in a country where I presently was located. Being in China, I chose to mail-order them from abroad – a certain respect to special-ordered goods, plus I didn’t have to make up my mind and drag my feet anywhere – everything was managed right from the couch in my living room.

I ordered the device from www.pinhole-glasses-direct.com. The package arrived to China from Italy very quickly, but I could lay my hands on it only a couple of months later as I had been traveling in Russia. The parcel covered the way from Italy to Beijing and then via my friend to Zhuhai. I always liked things made in Italy. I had a frame by Giorgio Armani, and I liked it tremendously, so it was an additional incentive to don the shades.

That’s how the pinhole glasses look on the snout of a bottle at 20:55.
The amazing but simple theory behind the use of pinhole glasses can be found here and here.

The world through pinholes is a little different and may be not unlike what a dragonfly may see with all those cells or what has it – at least the effect is such that every object comes through the hole at a slightly different angle and as I move my head each object acquires that je ne sais quoi kaleidoscopic quality overlapping with another image of itself.

Something like this.
I have not used these glasses for a long time yet, but I can say that they make the eyes work a little, sharpening the world a bit (as compared to the de-spectacled variant of the latter). The good thing is that the exercises are being done without much conscientious effort, and it’s of course not a bad thing at all.

My better half showed a lot of excitement and wears those glasses just for the fun of it several times a day, looking at the new image of world, at the same time – hopefully – improving her eyesight. Thus far, the pinhole glasses showed themselves from only the positive side, and if it is not only my imagination, they produce a tangible effect.

That is apart from the heartwarming fact that, as it turns out, Eskimos were the first to use the philosophy behind pinholes, wearing wooden specs with narrow slits to escape the glare form the immaculately white snow (for which they have several dozen names), and you cannot beat Eskimos to that. Because even though I don't know much about the Eskimos, they seem like really cool and wise folks; take for example their maxim 'do not eat yellow snow' and there you have it, knowing they won't use what's not good for you.