The intersection of COVID and Conservative Christianity - Why I'm not in church today

 I have a health blog, and I've not yet written about COVID.  It's not like I have followers waiting on this post, it's not like I have any information available that you can't look up from more reputable sources, but there are a few things that need to be said as I sit home in my second week of ever intentionally staying home from church other than for an illness or travel.  I might write a few of these in a row addressing several aspects of the intersection of COVID and Christianity.

When the NY shutdown began in 2020, the church doors were closed to the public, but the definition of "essential services" was rather open and I was part of a small team that made sure that some of the spiritual needs of our church family were met through remote video services.  My personal goals were not just continued teaching (which pastor was right could come from any of the more famous and better produced online preachers) but also to keep our spiritual family connected, to keep showing them familiar faces and familiar voices, the familiar piano and sanctuary...  these things are important to mental health as much as spiritual health.  As the pandemic stretched on, this connection was essential to the continued maintenance of our congregation.  Building maintenance, pastor salaries, and congregant needs don't vaporize just because people are staying home from church, but donations and prayers can.  I encourage you whatever your church's stance on COVID, to remain connected to your church family in some way.  

So why the turn about, why am I home while others are fellowshipping, when before I was fellowshipping while others were home?

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

Romans 13:1 ESV

https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/frequently-asked-questions-proof-full-vaccination-or-mask-requirement-businesses-and-venues

I understand the pressure on our consistory, that we are a small church that takes pride in being a "mixed multitude" that can have very different positions on many issues, but yet we hold some central truths as important enough to stand together.  We may interpret the bible differently, but we do believe the bible is the sole rule of truth and practice.  But...  if the consistory is unwilling to stand buy the governing authorities, and asks me to follow my conscience, I must obey the governing authorities as an individual.  Since I have no control over the behavior of others, the only thing within my power is to withdraw from others breaking the executive order while this executive order is in effect.

My role physically at church isn't very important, any teenager or photography buff can repoint the camera.  My husband's role is more essential, he needs to be there to make the stream run efficiently.  (Partly because he's just too stubborn to accept help, partly because he keeps adding new fancy features and the help he has has trouble keeping up with the changes.)  I respect him continuing to provide that support, and he respects my decision to stay home.

I will continue doing the things I do outside church hours to support members of the church.  I am watching the sermons from home that I'm usually on the other end of.  I'm trying to get over my social anxiety and pick up the phone to arrange to go visit some folks bound in their private residences so that I might be able to continue to gather together with fellow believers in some way.

I will be back.  I realize COVID executive orders have the habit of getting renewed and this might be longer than the currently stated weeks.  I miss you all.

Myopia Regression - Actually started a month ago.

So I officially had my contact trial period over and "differentials" (computer glasses) arrived 6/9.  I'm keeping my condensed log over at the community wiki.  I'm really struggling with developing the habits, when to wear the differentials, when not to, getting the contacts out of my eyes without hurting myself.  Then I do irritate my eye and have to go a few days back in regular glasses.  I am a lot more comfortable in differentials than my full prescription contacts.

Myopia Regression Basics

Just an overview of the program I'm trying.

The first premise is that you should have about a quarter diopter of blur in your glasses to promote ciliary muscle relaxation and remodeling of the eye.  If you were looking at a duochrome chart, the green would be clear and the red slightly fuzzy.  The second premise is that you need glasses appropriate to the distance you're working at, and for most people that means one pair of glasses for computers/reading, and one for outdoors.  Both of these rules are null and void when there is a legal or safety restriction like while driving, wear lenses necessary for legal driving in your jurisdiction.

The second premise is the most immediately fruitful.  Normally when I get stronger glasses I have lots of headaches and eye strain at work, where I spend 8 hours at a computer.  I'm pretty useless for a couple weeks until my eyes adjust, at which point I feel like my vision has not really improved over the prior pair of glasses.  In my new reading glasses I can comfortably compute all day long in my new contacts.  When I first got the contacts I was so grumpy about my vision that my husband made me run out and buy reading glasses even before the trial period was over and my situation stable enough to order customized reading glasses.

So the long term process is:
1. Measure eyesight.  This can be a professional measurement, based on distance to blur and math, or based on a DIY trial lens kit refraction.
2.  Get glasses +1.5 diopters from (remember myopic diopters are negative, -3+1.5 = -1.5) your measurement for computer work.  (You may have some trial and error to get glasses that put your work just beyond your blur horizon, if it's too blurry, go -0.25, no challenge, go +0.25.)
3.  Improve your vision habits, try to get away from near work as much as possible, take frequent breaks from near work, spend time looking at text just beyond your blur horizon.
4.  Get glasses that are +0.25 diopters from your measurement for distance.  (Give it a few weeks between step 2 and step 4.)
5.  Wait.  Practice #3.  If it's working, over the next 3 months or so your blur horizon should move outwards.  If it moves far enough that you have no blur challenge, go back to step 1.
6.  Astigmatism and imbalance between the eyes can cause extra complications.  the above process is fine for the first couple pairs of glasses, but at some point you will need to study more of the method and try things like changing cylinder power instead of sphere in steps 2 & 4, or changing in one eye only and practicing #3 with monocular vision in the bad eye.

The details of the method are in the EndMyopia 7 Day Email Guide, but they do make you scroll a lot to find it, I've not yet found any direct link.  There are lots of references in the community to the blog, but personally I have trouble with the indirect narrative style and the lack of relevance prioritization in the search function.  90% of what you need to know is in the 7 day e-mails if you have a uncomplicated situation.

Update - Myopia Regression - still stalled

Well, where have I gotten to...

The LASIK surgeon was not at all interested in any of my ideas.  He didn't quite kick me out of the office, but let's just say there's a reason he's a surgeon and has other people handle screening appointments.

So one of my hesitations with LASIK was that I wasn't clear what the actual benefits to my quality of vision would be.  A couple sources encouraged me to give contacts a try.  Because the lens is closer to the eye, the power is lower than in glasses, and they move with the eye, making peripheral vision issues go away entirely.

So in my mid 40s I'm starting the adventure of contacts.  So far I'm in -14.0/-13.5 lenses, in my second fitting pair, likely going for one change in the right eye.  I'm doing ok putting them in and wearing them, but getting them back out at the end of the day is a challenge.  I've already seriously irritated my left eye twice and had to take a break from the contacts for a few days.  I'm trying a new method of gripping with the side of my fingers instead of the tips.  Still hard to get the lens out, but at least my nails and my spare fingers are all out of the way so it's more gentle when I do miss.  I think at my lens strength and resulting thickness, my lenses are less flexible than the ones I see in most tutorials.

On the research end of things I've found:

• increased tear film increases negative lens power
• character recognition can improve without improving refraction
• bifocals and multifocals are protective against myopia progression.
• +1D myopic defocus is protective against myopia progression in growing children.
• myopic defocus can cause very minor changes in eye length, and cordial tissue thickness, although not enough to account for major diopter changes in anecdotal reports.
• Anecdotal reports of a change more than 4D is very rare.  Hard to say if this is a factor of community size 5 years ago, average change needed, or a limit to the process.

So my next steps are finishing the fitting period and getting my distance lenses all straightened out, and then finding appropriate reading glasses to wear over and relieve eye strain at computer work.  This should be protective against further progression.  Whether or not reduced lens therapy does anything for long term regression, we shall see, but reading glasses are a very safe tool with some potential to at least improve fluid circulation under the cornea by relaxing the ciliary muscle.