Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.—Albert Einstein
Julia (2014)
[one_half padding=”4px 10px 0 4px”]Eyes are perhaps the most interesting feature on one’s face. They come in different colors, different sizes, and with this incredible ability to communicate without ever saying a word. Whose mother didn’t have “that look,” you know, the one that told you that you had just done something terribly wrong and were going to be in a butt-load of trouble once she got you home. Eyes convey so much that we find it difficult to imagine life without them.
I can’t begin to describe how it felt when one morning, exactly three years ago, when I woke up and everything was a blur. I washed my face twice, then three times. I used saline drops. I cleaned my glasses no fewer than a dozen times. Nothing I did changed the fact that might eyesight was severely diminished. I was scared. Fortunately, thanks to the eventual cataract surgery in both eyes, the end result was positive; I see better now than I ever have.
My brother has it much worse. He was born legally blind, never crawled as a baby, and couldn’t walk until he had glasses, which back in 1966 was far from an easy thing to achieve. He grew up in a world where the boundaries of an object were always blurred, where depth perception was uncertain, especially in moving objects, and the success or failure of any activity depended upon the degree to which his glasses got in the way. However, not being able to see well enough for sports led him directly to strong math skills and becoming one of the best software engineers I’ve known.[/one_half]
[one_half_last padding=”4px 4px 0 10px”]Julia’s eyes are too beautiful to not include in this week’s discussions about faces. This dear child has had some rather daunting health challenges of her own the past year and her life has been far from ideal. Yet, it every picture she takes, her eyes are bright, vivid, and exciting. The day she was here to shoot with us, her eyes danced with an excitement I doubt I’ll ever forget.
I’m not sure I buy the whole thing about eyes being the window to the soul, though. First, one generally gets arrested for standing around looking into people’s windows, and similarly staring too long at someone’s eyes can be just a bit creepy, even if it’s something one has to do for professional reasons. Second, I’ve encountered too many people who know how to use the power of their eyes as a distraction, causing one to think they are being friendly when the opposite is true.
Eyes never cease to amaze me, though, and I’m glad that they are on the front of our heads, in the upper center part of our faces rather than on tentacles perched above our heads. I’m intrigued by all the colors eyes can hold and their way of conveying emotion even when we’d rather they didn’t. Eyes can also get us in trouble when they keep wandering to places socially inappropriate. They also allow us to soar among the stars and catch disaster before it happens. Eyes are wonderful; we just have to be sure they are open at the right time.[/one_half_last]