the eyes ... noodling

$400,000-plus sunglasses

Thinking about the eyes....

1. A small troll within pokes and prods and asserts: A (wo)man who will not give me his or her eyes and who hides instead behind sun glasses is a coward and a braggart and a liar. Is this an over-statement? Of course it is, but at my age over-statements have a certain savor.

The eyes are alive.

Speaking to someone wearing sunglasses is like speaking to a zombie.

It's rude.

Why should I speak with a cop who has pulled me over for speeding, but fails to take off his or her sunglasses when asking for my license and registration? Is s/he being kool? Intimidating? Superior? Well, maybe all of those ... but let's throw in a dollop of cowardice: The eyes tell tales that, while not entirely honest are at least a bit honest-er.

I prefer not to talk to people who decline to take off their sun glasses. I can see the point when playing Texas Hold'em, but in ordinary discourse ... go fuck yourself.

The most expensive sunglasses in the world carry a price tag above $400,000. Obviously, like very expensive wrist watches, the price has more to do with the jewelry and less to do with function. I guess it's another way of unzipping some psychological fly.

OK, so I can be pissy. But I wonder what it is within that demands the honesty of the eyes. What is it that hopes to be eye-to-eye and honesty-to-honesty?

2. The eyes are alive, but then there is the question of why anyone should feel the necessity to close the eyes of the deceased... stitch them perhaps ... put coins on them to assure that they stay closed. What's wrong with an open-eyed corpse?

Every Google explanation I could find includes the footnote that an open-eyed corpse is somehow disconcerting -- a being that no longer sees, staring into nothing at all, looking right at me. Closed eyes allows the onlooker to speak of "peace" or avoid the desiccation/shrinkage that kicks in ... but really, isn't there something somehow accusatory about the open eyes that see nothing and I am in the direct line of sight?

Kind of reminds you of the old graveyard welcome mat:

As you are now
So once were we.
As we are now
So you shall be.