Positive Vision: Enjoying the Adventures and Advantages of Poor Eyesight

by Ken Brandt, Elzy Kolb (Editor), Judy Roberts Brandt (Designed by)

Overview

Author Ken Brandt presents a gloriously positive view of life's challenges while riding his roller coaster of vision setbacks and improvements. An adventure and humor filled journey that includes: being dragged by galloping horses in Montana, helping firefighters combat an arson blaze, captaining his university parachuting team, and a long convoluted successful chase of a thief in New York City.

Complementing the adventures are amusing and relatable anecdotes demonstrating the advantages of poor eyesight. Good eyesight is clearly better than poor eyesight, but it is fun to appreciate the advantages of poor eyesight, such as: longer life, better balance, and better presentation skills. Enjoying these advantages makes life more fun for you and those around you.

Brandt presents the bright side of his lifetime with poor vision and slightly crossed eyes, sharing how he worked his way through eyeglasses, contact lenses, a detached retina and cataract operation in each eye, two other eye operations, and many years of being legally blind.

Each book purchase helps two great vision causes. Author Ken Brandt is donating 10 percent of his book royalties (5 percent each) to: Massachusetts Eye and Ear, for eye research; and The Fred Hollows Foundation, for ending avoidable blindness.

Everyone with even slightly less than perfect eyesight must be a bit adventurous to do some of the same things routinely done by people with normal eyesight. If you are not there yet, you might be in the future: Many people's vision deteriorates a bit as they age, pushing them into this adventure zone. Enjoy Ken Brandt's sneak preview in this memoir.

A rollicking, rambling ripper of a read. Great for anyone who likes adventure, humor, memoirs, and a bit of inspiration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780648762508
Publisher:	Ken Brandt
Publication date:	09/18/2020
Pages:	124
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.26(d)

About the Author

Ken Brandt is the author of the adventure and humor filled memoir "Positive Vision: Enjoying the Adventures and Advantages of Poor Eyesight". He has led a fun and adventurous life and had a successful business career despite (or perhaps in part because of!) his bad eyes. Poor eyesight never impacted Ken's vision of what life could be. Whether galloping across the Montana range, exploring claustrophobic (and fiery!) caverns, chasing a thief through the streets of 1980s New York, or taking a plunge from a plane, his adventures are sure to entertain. Complementing the adventures are his amusing and relatable anecdotes demonstrating the advantages of poor eyesight. Ken has always had poor vision and slightly crossed eyes. He has undergone six eye operations (including a detached retina and cataract operation in each eye), and spent parts of his life legally blind. Ken donates 10 percent of his author royalties to eye research and ending avoidable blindness. Prior to retiring and writing "Positive Vision: Enjoying the Adventures and Advantages of Poor Eyesight", Ken held senior management and management consulting positions in information technology and cyber security with firms and clients of all sizes in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Ken is an entertaining speaker and an amateur New Orleans style jazz trumpeter. He and his wife Judy Roberts Brandt have been married for over twenty years, lived most of their lives in New York City, and now live in Melbourne, Australia.

The savvy and very cool Elzy Kolb is the book's editor. She is a long-time New York-based freelance writer, editor and copy editor, and has worked for a spectrum of print and web publications including The New York Times, O - the Oprah Magazine, Rolling Stone, Vogue, Teen Vogue, Food & Wine, Psychology Today, Glamour, Popular Mechanics, and many others. She has been a Hot House (New York's premier jazz guide) contributing writer since 2003 and is now its contributing editor.

Judy Roberts Brandt designed the book cover, interior of the book, and created much of the photography. She has a lifetime of art direction, visual design, and graphic design expertise encompassing commercial and fine art. Her commercial work includes advertising and marketing campaigns, corporate branding and logos, promotional materials, TV commercials, short films, websites, and all types of printed materials. Her clients have included large firms such as American Express, UBS, KPMG, etc., as well as government agencies, many small-medium size firms, and start-ups. Her fine art - largely abstract photography: stills, videos, and large scale projections - has been exhibited in Melbourne, Australia and New York City, U.S.A.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Chapter 1: Longer Life

Chapter 2: Science to the Rescue

Chapter 3: Adventure and Discovery

Chapter 4: Successful People with Poor Eyesight

Chapter 5: Imagination, Creativity, and Focus

Chapter 6: Public Speaking and Sports

Chapter 7: Smell, Taste, Hearing, Touch

Chapter 8: Beauty, Relationships, Racial Harmony

Chapter 9: Mayhem, Curiosity, Mystery, Thief

Chapter 10: Final Thoughts

About the Author

Dedication

Philanthropy

Acknowledgements

Appendix: Understanding the Eye Chart

Editorial Reviews

"Positive Vision" is a fun journey of insightful anecdotes and exciting adventures, illustrating how poor eyesight can contribute to a joyful and full life! A great read for anyone who has - or knows someone with - poor eyesight. Bennie H. Jeng, MD, Professor and Chair, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine

An exhilarating and uplifting read! Drowned in the nuances of daily life, most of us always look but cannot see... In "Positive Vision", Ken shows us how to look AND see, with heaps of humour, from the heart and soul. Dr. Daniel Chiu - Ophthalmic Surgeon and Retinal Specialist

An upbeat read on an issue that affects everyone: eyesight. Ken speaks from real personal experience how vision impairment can impact a person's life. Ian Wishart, CEO, The Fred Hollows Foundation

An incredibly optimistic and positive view on life. It is a pleasure to read and a fascinating biography that proves that even with very limited eyesight there is no limit to what you can achieve. Dr. Mark Troski - Cataract Surgeon

From the Publisher