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Thought for the Week

Clifton College's Chaplain, Kim Taplin, brings us his 'Thought for the Week'

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The Eyes Have It

As I passed a neighbour this morning on the pavement outside our home, we both wished each other “Good morning.” Oddly, though, she did not look in my direction at all as she offered her greeting. Similarly, I am often amused by the comical way in which proud and macho football team managers shake hands after a match – they rarely actually look at each other in the eyes as they exchange their gestures of congratulation or commiseration. Why do human beings behave in such contradictory ways?

I suspect that averting the gaze has much to do with our fear of vulnerability. The eyes are the window to the soul, they can reveal too much about what we are thinking or feeling, they give too much away. Prolonged eye contact is often a sign of aggression (as with boxers squaring up before a fight) or, by contrast, of intimacy (as with a lover admiring the beloved). We are anxious not to be misunderstood, and so looking away enables us, at least temporarily, to feel more secure.

Despite the pitfalls, genuine, open eye contact remains one of the most life-enhancing ways in which one human being can convey that he values another.

The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.
(St Matthew 6. 22)

28 November 2011

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