By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor
Sunday Inquirer Magazine
LOOKING in, the trouble with beauty is that its very idea is impossible to define; it is relative and self-evident, timeless and fleeting, why she even walks in it, according to Cummings. A bigger puzzle is how people can be in such agreement (celebrities) and conflict (beauty pageants) about it. So is it really within? Why then do we spend so much time working on and being obsessed with the without part?
Additionally, what women and men see as beautiful is apparently not in harmony, perhaps has never been. Additionally, individual “taste” has been much maligned, heck, even ridiculed, often ironically, by whomever they’re dating at the moment.
Putting aside the fact that personalities are not usually immediately quantifiable, then the eyes have it. I don’t mean we look at how the eyes fit with the rest of the face, or even the rest of the person. No, I mean the eyes by themselves.
There are small eyes and big eyes, smart eyes and duh eyes, playful pupils and scary stares. Eyes can be night black, burnished brown, sparkling blue and striking green. Red eyes always have a story to go with them, of heartbreak or deadlines or illness.
But what fascinates me about eyes is depth. I love eyes that you can look into and get lost in. For hours. Forever. It takes great effort to look into such eyes because you have to get real close and you have to look for a long time. Even more that than, the person whose eyes you’re looking into have to be looking back at you.
This is neither easy nor maybe even polite. Many people don’t like looking into other people’s eyes at all, much less for an extended period. Also problematic is the common usage of colored lenses. If those are not the actual color and depth of your eyes, then it’s worse than wearing a mask; it’s akin to switching identities completely.
Getting lost in someone’s eyes (hello Debbie Gibson) is a bit disarming. You literally feel like you’re getting sucked into those depths and it actually feels like a special effect in a movie or TV show. Cue “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls. It even reminds me of those time-travel bits on “Doctor Who,” whether it be Christopher Eccleston or David Tennant, take your pick.
This is also the reason why the common appearance of eyes in horror movies is a clever, affecting subversion of the eyes as a beautiful element. There are so many clichés attached to the ideas of eyes that further discussion threatens to unleash the whole lot. Eyes are the windows… Urk. Almost got me there.
Most of all, it takes an extraordinary pair of eyes for one to even contemplate staring into them for the rest of someone’s life, in those rare moments before sleep prevails. It takes a pair of eyes that glint of possibility without the danger of deceit, eyes that offer honesty instead of connivance. These are the eyes that obliterate the memory of all the other eyes that might have been seen before. Now, take another look. Closer. Deeper. What do you see?
Check out the June 15 issue of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.
