I remember when I came to this office so many years ago. My sight was only beginning to fade then. A minor inconvenience, remedied by a pair of contact lenses. After a painful and teary practice period, they became like a second skin. Now a detatched retina blinds my right eye, and the doctor, once so pleasant as he handed me a prescription, now brushes me aside with a "We must expect these things as we get older." His briskness may be an attempt to cover an uneasiness that he has no answers, or it may be his natural response to a negligible old woman.