I Spy With My Little Eye

It was time for my annual eye exam which is not really a big deal so I asked Jerry to drive me which jacked up its importance. The importance of something is directly related to number of people that it annoys.
My doctor is the newest member of a practice that has been around Bellingham since they first started paving the streets. Young doctor/old practice mix gives me a lot of confidence. At least it did until I was left in an exam room that didn't have a magazine rack.
No magazine racks, no magazines. Just shelves lined with old books. I guess they might have been left there from the last century when the previous doctors thought they added gravitas. Thick, old leather bound books that were once probably worth thousands of dollars. Souvenirs of medical school? I have books like that from when I went to college. You buy the over-priced text book, then when the class is over and you have only read thirty five or forty pages, you can't stand to throw it away no matter how outdated and quaint it is. I think most of the opthamology books belong in the 'never been cracked' category.
At least I hope that my doctor reads current journals instead of historical medical texts. But the reason they caught my attention was one was titled “Controversies in Ophthalmology.” I can't imagine what kind of controversy or how there can be plural of them. On what side does my doctor belong in each issue?
I wasn't alone in the room long enough to take the book off the shelf. I am pretty sure they weren't there to substitute for a rack of magazines. There isn't much else to do in an exam room, but still, I left the book alone and instead read the diplomas on the wall. My doctor's name is James Kim. Jim Kim. It's like his parents had expectations that he would be a real estate salesman. Now that he has made his reputation in ophthalmology, I bet nobody calls him Jim. He is well known for cataract surgery, which I found alarming after the second time he dropped the glaucoma detecting device on the floor.
Next week I return to the dentist so he can pop my crowns on. There is nothing as puzzling at his office as ancient books. He doesn't even have a poster on his ceiling, which I thought was obligatory with dentists, but apparently not. He does have a magazine rack.
Nancy Sherer