Eyes...The Window to our Soul

Those true eyes
Too pure and too honest in aught to disguise
The sweet soul shining through them
-Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton

Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine.
-Ben Jonson, To Celia

Greetings and welcome to all who visit the Un-Zone. Some of you are repeat visitors, and some are new to this part of the Internet. But to all, please come again. Enjoy your visit and tell your friends to visit, if you so like, whether or not you liked or disliked what you have read. Post comments. This update is brought to you by the letter "E" and the number "5".

Today's post is all about eyes. Yes, eyes. Some might consider these posts to be rambling and random, but that is the way I write these things. It's how I naturally do these things, though most of the time, I am pretty organized and things are planned out in a rational order. If this were for a grade, I would be a lot less rambly.

I like drawing. It is one of the few pleasures in life that I try to do on a regular basis. That and reading and listening to music. If I could focus really well, I can do two at a time. I've been drawing females. One of the hardest things to draw, well for me at least, are eyes. You automatically notice when they look weird. Something just does not look right. (As a side note, look at Egyptian tomb drawings. They never drew the eyes in perspective, always as if you were looking at them head-on. All they had to do was draw half an eye to get it done right. A little art history, and for much less than what they charge at major universities.) They're crooked, shaped funny, not as good as you would like them. But when drawn correctly, they make the enitre picture look complete. I'm probably being a little too obsessive with this. I once drew eyes correctly once, and I never achieved this again.

American culture puts a high level of importance on eye contact in communication, but when you ask a person to tell what color eyes someone has, most can't tell without looking. Suppossedly, we put so much effort on reading the signals the eyes send out, eye color doesn't register. I seem to notice eye color a lot.
I know a girl who has the most amazing eyes. They are crystal clear, cool, and blue. It is like looking at a clear, summer sky without a cloud in sight. Or, for a more aquatic figure of speech, one could swim in them. Another girl I know has green eyes. A peculiar shade of green. Depending on what she wears, one might think they are a greyish-blue or a greenish-hazel or just green. This is only if you are not observant. As an interesting sidenote, one can also use French eyedrops to make your eyes seem more vibrant. Spies and others in fields that need secrecy use them, in additon to colored contacts. Another girl I know has eyes of an interesting shade of blue, almost purple, like the sky at twilight. They're very beautiful, very mysterious. And I can't forget the brown-eyed females. Eyes that are bright, warm, friendly, intelligent. Some were smouldering and intense. I like eyes. I could write a lot more about the eyes I like and the girls who have them. I digress again.

Despite what people say, we notice eyes first. Yes, and that includes other parts of the anatomy. In the beginning stages of courtship, people will take brief glances at people that they like. It tells people, "I am man/woman. Do you see me?" We notice when people are looking at us, well most do. Some people are just clueless, myself included sometimes. Once contact is made, and there is some mutual liking between them, the pupils dilate. They become larger. European women used to add belladonna drops in their eyes to mimic arousal. Belladonna is a poison derived from deadly nightshade. It also means "beautiful woman" in Italian. The writer Ambrose Bierce would say these two definitions are not mutually exclusive. As the relationship becomes more serious, there will be only mutual gazes between the two people. Everyone is excluded and there are subtle signals that tell others to keep away.
Your eyes cannot lie. We've come up with phrases and quotes about eyes throughout history. They reflect the importance of eyes and how we see the world. If you like someone, you can't take your eyes off of them. Good looking people are "lookers" or "eye-candy." You might have something that people call "bedroom eyes." You also can show the "come-hiter" look. Women are very good at this. Maybe a little too good. If you dislike someone, you look away. Your eyes squint. Even at an early age, we show like and dislike with our eyes. We blink when we are nervous or being deceptive. We also blink when we see something or someone we like. When we are afraid, we have eyes that look like a deer in headlights.

Yes, like everything else, it's all hard-wired into our brains, something that evolution has left in from our primate ancestors. And all you Kansas State School Board members can argue all you want and try to de-emphasize evolution all you want. We're enthralled at them by the time we are six-weeks old. We're programmed from birth to like eyes and to put meaning into what others eyes are doing, though there are people focus on...um...other noticable aspects of the human anatomy which shall be left unnamed and unmentioned.

Eyes. We see the world through them. Others notice them and make decisions on what they do. We're all fascinated by them. At least I am. That's all for now.