We all think we can multitask with ease.

We try to learn Spanish while sweating on the Stairmaster — and trying to write the great American novel in our head. We try to watch our favorite TV shows while balancing our checkbook — and knitting a sweater. And during the big holidays, we try to cook 10 dishes simultaneously from scratch that will all go on the table miraculously at once.

At times like that, there’s only one true salvation — kale.

Yes, the hardy green comes to the rescue when we’ve got just one too many cooking tasks to attend to.

In Melissa Clark’s “Raw Kale Salad with Anchovy-Date Dressing,” the veg is a lifesaver as it forms the basis of a salad that can sit quite happily on the table for hours without any worse for wear. It won’t get soggy like spring mix. It’s far more interesting than iceberg. And it actually gets tastier as the leaves start to wilt a little.

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For the longest time, I was both proud and perhaps a bit smug that I was the only person in my entire family — extended included — who did not need glasses.

That’s quite the achievement, too, considering how many Asians tend to be myopic.

I thought I had escaped that fate, as I remained spectacle-free through my teens, despite the fact that my parents, brothers, cousins, aunts and uncles all grew up wearing those familiar round or cat-eyed black, plastic frames.

My dreams came to an abrupt end, though, when my older brother Dale took me to the Department of Motor Vehicles one day to get my driver’s license. I had studied the manual like crazy so that I’d do well on the written and driving tests. But who knew it was the simple eye test that would do me in?

I guess I should have known what was in store as I stood in line and stared at the eye chart hanging some feet away behind the counter. As hard as I squinted, I still could barely make out anything on it. Once I got closer, though, I thought surely I would. My brother even coaxed me to get out of line, inch closer to the counter and try to memorize the chart before my turn was called. I did give that a try. But as luck would have it, they closed the line that I was in, and shifted us to another line — with a totally different eye chart. Curses!

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