Elephant’s Continually-updating Coronavirus Diary. ~ Waylon

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Have you noticed lately? Everyone has beautiful eyes.

To be fair, people have always had beautiful eyes, but until recently, I didn’t notice.

Then, a couple of months ago, we started to cover our lower faces with masks, and I started to notice eyes. For two months now, I’ve noticed only eyes, and I’ve come to realize that everyone has beautiful eyes.

You have beautiful eyes. I can’t see the rest of your face, but your mask makes your eyes absolutely stunning. Look at the people around us. His mask shows off his beautiful eyes. So does hers. So, if I may say so, does mine. When we all wear our masks, we all have beautiful eyes, because all eyes are beautiful.

During these shelter-in-place times, I am fortunate enough to be considered an “essential” worker, in an environment where everyone still wears a protective mask. If you work with me, most of your face is covered, obscured from view, hidden from judgment—except for your eyes.

Your eyes are not hidden from anything.

Your eyes are naked. These days, as I look at you, I see nothing but your naked eyes, and your naked eyes are beautiful, because everyone has beautiful eyes.

Until this pandemic, I had never looked into so many eyes. It used to be when I would look at someone, my mind would take in the whole face and evaluate it. The human brain works that way. We all do this. We can’t help it.

Do I know him? What snap judgments can I make about her? The mind assimilates a face, not individual features. My mind would judge. Is this the face of a person I know? More insidiously, is this the face of a person whom I find to be attractive?

I would notice the eyes, yes, and also the nose, how does it curve? Is it wide or narrow? I would see the mouth. Are the lips full; are the teeth straight and white? How are the cheeks and jaw? I would notice them in the context of each other and judge. Tell me that you haven’t seen beauty in someone’s face and judged.

Now that we are wearing masks, I notice eyes, and only eyes. No longer do I have the luxury of evaluating the beauty of a face—I can’t see the teeth, the smile, the lips, the jaw. How at once this is both confusing and liberating. I no longer judge, and suddenly everyone is beautiful.

All I see are eyes. And everyone has beautiful eyes.

Wearing masks has shown the world all of our beautiful eyes. How much happier we can be now that we cannot judge, and cannot be judged by, our differences. How similar we all are.

We all have beautiful eyes.

Now the masks are starting to go away. In some places, mask requirements are relaxing. The thing is, we wear masks to protect others, not ourselves. Even though the best medical advice is to keep wearing the masks in public, some people are not wearing them anymore.

To me, if you are wearing a mask, it shows compassion for humanity. If you are a mask wearer, it shows that you care more about the health of the rest of the world than you care about how you look or how you feel. Caring about humanity more than you care about yourself is beautiful. 

The masks are beautiful because the act of wearing one shows that you care. And the masks are beautiful because when you wear one, everyone will see that you have beautiful eyes.

Your beautiful eyes mean that you care, and caring is beautiful.

Some folks are clamoring to remove the masks. It infringes on their freedom, they say. We have a right to spread our germs over whomever we choose, they might as well say. Someone told me on Facebook the other day that he isn’t going to wear a mask in public and if I don’t like it, I can stay home. That is not beautiful. That is selfish.

Oh, but if only they would wear masks, what beautiful eyes they would have!

When you wear a mask, and the world can see your beautiful eyes, something else happens. Suddenly we cannot see conservative eyes or liberal eyes. We cannot see gay or straight eyes. We cannot see English, Italian, German, or Mexican eyes. We cannot see Hindu, Muslim, or Christian eyes. We do not even see Black or White eyes. The eyes we see are the eyes of all humanity, and everyone has beautiful eyes.

When this pandemic is not so bad, and the masks are off, remember how beautiful everyone’s eyes are. For now, please do the world a favor and wear your mask in public—for everyone’s health. We want to see your beautiful eyes. 

If you are wearing your mask, your compassion and selflessness shows the world how beautiful you are. We can see it in your eyes.

Later, when these crazy days fade into memories, everyone is going to still be beautiful because when the masks finally come off for real, lives will have been saved, and everyone will still have beautiful eyes.

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