Can You See the Irony?

Irony: 2a. the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning … (Merriam-Webster online dictionary).

Sometimes irony hits us in the face, leaving us stunned for a moment, unable to respond. For me the jolt came during a recent visit to a new optometrist. New to me, I might add, not new to the profession.

After filling out all the required personal information, I was caught off guard by the next question on the clipboard-attached form: “Do you have blurry vision?”

What?

Yes, I thought. But only when I’m not wearing my glasses, like now.

Blurry vision? Were they kidding? I was sitting in an over-padded examination chair in an optometrist’s office and I wasn’t there to have my teeth cleaned.

I brought the question to the doctor’s attention, but he just smiled and said nothing. Evidently, he failed to see the irony.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Irony appears early in life. My middle school students faced it this fall on our “Peace Out to Drugs” day during Red Ribbon Week, a national anti-drug awareness campaign.

On that particular day, students came to school dressed as hippies, wearing t-shirts adorned with peace signs and mushrooms in psychedelic pink and orange and green. They loved it – rainbow-colored Afro wigs, scarves for headbands, and peace-sign earrings. But they had little, if any, knowledge of the hippie culture, and I couldn’t help but appreciate the fact that they didn’t know about the so-called free love, free drugs (at least the first round) and free spirit of the 1960s.

I wonder if their grandparents would have seen the irony.