Utdrag ur måndagens tal på EMVPO på skärgårdskryssningsfartyget

After many years of marriage you think you know each other from bottom and up and the opposite. Everything is clear.

But for us researchers or adventurers this is not the case. You always think there are new things to discover, new islands to visit and new topics to bring up for breakfast. If I would tell you that I have a blind friend, and I mean real blind, not American blind, and that he is reading his own book in the audio version without seeing the text, you would know what I mean. Everything is possible if you just use some imagination.

“Since my macula does not work for the last 42 years, I looked up some other friends called cones in the peripheral part of the retina, and asked them if they would like to take over the work from the guys who resigned. They said yes, but with one condition: they needed more magnification as the density was lower out in the countryside of the retina. Now, it works, and after some years training I know where my favourite spot is located and what to do, and I can even teach others in the same situation to do the same thing according to their retinal feature and personal needs”.

But you know what surprised me? When I met researchers, some of them rather nice, and found that they use words I cannot understand. Preferred Retinal Locus was their name of the new village in the countryside of the retina…. So I found myself another profession: research interpreter.

I translated PRL to the more understandable abbreviation BRA, Best Retinal Areas, and I assure you: we, the normal ones, enjoys that since it gets a functional meaning..

Now I can See Bad and Feel Good. I am not any longer one of the poor guys, I am rich enough to be free to say and think what I like. So if you meet a person with 20/400 in BCVA don’t call him or her blind. Call us by their real name and tell us who you are since we don’t recognize your tired face. We are not even patients, since patients are persons suffering. We are your best friends, since without our interesting retinas you would have to find other BRAs to study.

On the other hand, I appreciate a lot that you are sitting here tonight. This is the nice archipelago ere located and I would like to say to you: Thanks for giving the visual mystics a thought or two, but remember. I am not your Ginny pig, I am your friend, and if you want to know anything about my problem, ask me. Don’t ask my doctor, since he or she only knows about my retina. The expert of the retina is the person who owns it. Right? Or left!

The cooperation between the aware research person and the researcher will in the future lead to a much more interesting reading process of the oh so boring articles you present all the time. No pictures, no stories from real life. Just lots of numbers and figures… How can you sound so passionate all day long when the results are so hard to understand?

LOOKING THROUGH THE EYES OF LOVE
Melissa Manchester

Please, don't let this feeling end,
It's ev'rything I am,
Ev'rything I wanna be;
I can see what's mine now,
Finding out what's true,
Since I've found you
Lookin' through the eyes of love

Now I can take the time,
I can see my life
As it comes on shining now;
Reachin' out to touch you,
I can feel so much,
Since I've found you
Lookin' through the eyes of love.

And now I do believe,
That even in a storm, we'll find some light;
Knowin' you're beside me,
I'm alright.

Please, don't let this feelin' end,
It might not come again;
And I want to remember
How it feels to touch you;
How I feel so much,
Since I've found you
Lookin' through the eyes of love.

Dalai Lama

In this short walk of life, we have had our share of joy,. Let us hope to meet again in the youth of our next life.