I double dog dare ya to repeat the story you heard in 3 Trees the shop of Indian incense and beeswax crayons from Germany perhaps a source for Waldorf or Montessori Nepali filigree or Balinese woven silver and semi-precious gems cut loose dresses and butterfly pants from Indonesia or somewhere similarly hot and breezy and yoga cushions maybe made locally and unmentionable remarks harder to tell than listen to I think it was a tall woman of subcontinent ancestry who was trying on bras and dresses and saying she was generally pleased at the selection and the clerk who replied yeah who knew Asian women have boobs and height and take up space and commisserated with her customer who mentioned she didn't think men looked for a mirror to see how their bum looks before deciding and buying down the risk she knowingly showed to me I was there for the sale half price and no tax the gift they give 3 times a year to generate so...

When describing the appearance of a librarian in her novel Summer , Edith Wharton suggests that her librarian character has the "appealing look of the nearsighted".  The librarian is talking to a visitor who "was laughing with all of his teeth". It is true that we myopics do from time to time squint and fix our gaze a bit too long on others, especially when looking into their eyes--to the point of staring, perhaps--but what else can you do when it is hard to bring the world into focus and to keep the lines sharp and the colours from running.  We gain a lot of purchase on the present from the look in another's eye, and from its shape and from the shade it might theoretically match on the colour wheel. And we regret when we are shortsighted, whether nearsighted or not. And most unforgivable is seeing what isn't there, not even in the right circumstances! Still one can hope and from time to time glimpse the further shore.