Lenses

I came to a very different conclusion than the one you did about the short essay "Lenses". To me, the essay followed the previous themes about cruelty and appreciation of beauty, like "The Deer at Providencia" and "Into the Jungle", respectively. For example, she says how she "set up and staged hundreds of ends-of-the-worlds", "apocalypses", and "loved" them. This connects to how cold she was in relation to the suffering of the deer, where she acceepted the fact that there had to be suffering in the world for some people. She did not care about the suffering of the miniscule bacteria and algae. Afterwards, she appreciated the simple beauty of the simple beauty of the swans as "they flew" "in clockwise elipses", just as she enjoyed the simple beauty of being away from the chaos of the world while she was in the jungle.
Although Kelsea, the theme you bring up seems to make much more sense and fit accordingly. The different 'lenses' you learn to look at life through demonstrate a different level of maturity which you've reached after you learn how to manage the previous 'lense'.
I have several questions though.
What do you think the 75 Watt bulb symbolizes ? At the end of the essay she also says "my eyes burned", but now referring to the sun. Might the light symbolize a new stage or realization ? Like a new idea or self-recognition?
Also, why do you think she describes her microscope and bacteria for the first half of the essay, but then aburptly change the subject and even say "But oddly enough, this is a story about swans." Do you think it might be parrallel to 'abruptly maturing?'