A Word on the Tree of Life Shooting

I don't want this to sound like "I told you so" because that's not my intention. But to all those people who have expressed concern to me over the last 4.5 years about my decision to move to Israel because of how dangerous it is to live here, I unfortunately now have proof to what I've been saying all along. Here in Israel we know who our enemy is. We know where they live, they state their hate-filled agendas for all the world to hear, and we take common-sense gun laws seriously as well as security checkpoints in basically every place where large groups of people gather (airport, malls, train stations etc.) In Pittsburgh, antisemitism doesn't often rear its head, but I've always feared that something like this would come out of nowhere. Someone once hit my brother while walking down a city street in Squirrel Hill. He didn't know the man. The man just saw a Jew, said some derogatory comment, and hit him and left the scene. A random act of violence. Pittsburgh is truly at its core a city of love and brotherhood. But this leads to a false sense of security that something like this can't happen here. Not on our streets. Not in peaceful Squirrel Hill. Guess what, it can and it has. People need to wake up. People need to engage in CIVIL DISCOURSE, instead of the hate-filled separation we've been experiencing. We should be able to speak to each other about topics we don't agree on without devolving into idiots shouting our opinions and not listening to those of others; without deciding that if someone disagrees with you they are "stupid" or not worth listening to.
I don't really have the energy to sum up my thoughts enough for a proper sign-off, so I'm just going to say this: go out today and spread love into the world. Truly listen to others and let them know you value their opinion. Act the same way on the Internet as you would in real life. And start doing things to help bring change to this crazy world we live in.

My Enchroma Experience

Following my highly successful GoFundMe campaign, thanks to the incredibly generous contributions from friends and family, I received a pair of Enchroma glasses in the middle of August. Here’s a summary of my experience:

When I first got the glasses I went with Rivkah, the kids, and several of my close friends to a park near my house. The park has many different play items, all with varied and bright colors. With great anticipation and excitement I put on the glasses and looked around. At first there didn’t seem to be much of a difference. I continued to walk around and look around and I slowly started to see some changes. I noticed a bright, light-purple pole which previously had looked more like a sky-blue. I noticed that the grass looked a bit greener. All in all though things looked pretty much unchanged.

I’ve been wearing the glasses now for 2 months and I think my eyes took some time to learn what they were seeing. The first thing that really blew my mind was when I looked at a traffic light and, to my shock, saw that it was a very deep green; probably close to grass color. Previously the green traffic lights have looked like a pale green, almost white. Then, maybe a week or two later I was walking my kids to school and noticed some stunning purple flowers on a tree. Without the glasses they were still purple, but definitely not stunning. I stopped and stared at them for a full minute.

Overall, greens look sharper. Purples are vibrant, there are a couple more colors which stand out, but overall the world is unchanged. To get a bit technical, there are three different types of lenses to choose from and I opted for the Cx-25 medium sunglass lens instead of the Cx-14 standard sunglasses. I had hoped that they would work indoors at least slightly, but they sadly don’t. If I had the chance to exchange them for the full sunglass lenses I most likely would. I don’t know if that would make the experience better for me, but if given the choice between these lenses and nothing, I’d probably get them again.

Well, that’s my review. Not as exciting as I thought they’d be, but definitely cool and better than nothing. I don’t think I’d buy them again at a $650 price tag, but if you’ve got the money and you are colorblind, I’d recommend trying them out. They’re fully refundable within 30 days, even for customized lenses. So it’s definitely worth a shot.

Hope this review helps anyone who is colorblind and looking into these.

Please Help Bring Color to My Life

I have been colorblind all my life. I've heard all the jokes, been asked countless times what color things are, and changed my career path goals a few times based on my colorblindness. Growing up I couldn't even dream of being an Air Force pilot because I knew my colorblindness wouldn't even allow me to try. In college I dropped out my graphic design degree program because the colorblindness was too high a barrier to climb. Even today, working on the computer all day, I have moments all day long when I struggle to determine what colors I am seeing on the screen. It may not impact me in a severe way anymore, but I'm reminded on a daily basis by little things throughout the day that I have an impediment, and that I just don't see colors they way others do.

I recently discovered that there is now a company called Enchroma which sells glasses specifically to correct colorblindness, and the type of colorblindness I have is the ideal candidate for these glasses. When I watched their promotional video, and then some videos that people made when they used these glasses for the first time, video 1 video 2 , I cried. I cried because for the first time in my life I had hope that maybe there is a way for me to see the world the way everyone else sees it.

I started a campaign on GoFundMe to help me raise money for these glasses. You can find the campaign and contribute here.

The glasses are $520 before taxes and shipping. After all is said and done they will probably cost close to $650. I'm calling on all of you who have joked along with me at my colorblindness all these years to help me with my quest to see colors normally for the first time in my life. I really appreciate it!