One day, a Congolese man picked up a pair of reading glasses his boss had left laying on a table, wondering what this was all about.
Not knowing that white people sometimes cannot see clearly without corrective glasses, the black man put the glasses on.
As he had 20/20 vision, he was shocked to see everything was blurred.
How can anybody possibly see clearly with glasses like that? A person wearing glasses must be very smart to be able to see with eye glasses.
Conclusion: Wearing corrective glasses became the symbol of being highly intellectual and above intelligence.
I had told that story to my husband's Health Care Professional, knowing that he would understand the story since he was from South Soudan.
This was a good five weeks ago.
We were talking about the difference between helping and enabling at lunch today. I also explained how I had called my husband's bluff that morning, as he was pretending he could not button up his shirt cuffs.
As I was leaving the table to go to the office, and knowing how much we like to laugh, pointing at me, the Care Giver said to my husband:
"Look at Anny's smile! She is smart: she is wearing glasses!"
Amen.