Windows to the Soul

Have you ever realized how little people look at each other?

I was sitting in my office having a conversation with a friend the other day and noticed that I am guilty of it. This was a person I have known for a while. I felt absolutely comfortable, and yet I realized how strange it felt to look at him for more than a few moments. Ding! My internal timer would be up and I would casually find something to draw my attention away. Option one: rub my eyes. Check. Option two: look over his shoulder as if something important was happening behind his chair. Check. Option three: fidget with some papers and give them the much-needed attention they deserved in that moment. Check. In hindsight, I was thinking more about natural looking ways to break eye contact than I was on the actual conversation.

I know I am not alone in this, and feel as if it is an epidemic. If you are walking down the street and are about to pass by someone, look away. Now that we all have a cellphone in our pocket we have also come to recognize a built in security for the impending awkwardness. There must always be someone texting… even if there isn’t. We spend more time today staring at screens, whether our texting screens, our Skyping screens, or our entertainment screens, could it be that we are all starving for deep intimacy through human contact? Could we just be seeking it in the wrong place? Maybe many of us, myself included, have become confortable with it? Perhaps our culture today is so overrun with dangerous and damaging ideologies towards things like the institution of marriage, sexuality, and the like, because we have lost this sense of intimacy. We have lost this crucial human connection. The pornography industry did not become so large because viewers are spending hours every day staring deeply into the eyes of the actors.

The old adage goes something like, “the eyes are the windows to the soul.” Never have I more believed that claim than right now while undertaking this reflection. There exists a great piece of spiritual advice that goes along with the thought: “maintain custody of your eyes.” If the eyes are windows to the soul, and you are opening those windows to everything good and true, like the authentic beauty of a loved one, than your soul will be filled with such beauty and goodness. If however, you have developed the bad habit of opening them merely to the carnal than your soul will likewise be reduced to that of the beasts. We were not made like the beasts, but rather made in the image and likeness of God, who is all Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. Let us all pray for the strength to maintain a protective posture towards what we allow in our soul and the willingness to open up to a vulnerable intimacy with each other.

Till Next Time…