These Calloused Eyes

These Calloused Eyes
By Marilyn Mackenzie


Inspiration for my writing has come from many places.

Sometimes inspiration has come from people who were totally unaware that they had touched me. "Life Is What You Make It" 

Sometimes I am inspired to write by tragedies or even just the discomforts in my life. "Waiting, Waiting 1-2-3"  or "The Young Evangelist" 

But what of today? What inspired me today?

A few days ago, my eyes were getting sore and red. As I took out my contact lenses at the end of the day, I examined my eyes carefully and noticed that the right eye appeared to have a lump forming on it.

As one who loves awakening in the early morning to watch the sun rise, I value my sight. Because of that, I do tend to be aware of any changes in my sight or how my eyes feel. This burning in my eyes, and the lump I found in one eye, seemed to come on quickly.

Today I visited the opthamologist, and discovered that my right eye is calloused and that my left is also developing a callous on it.

How does one get calloused eyes? Apparently the malady is the result of many factors – living in a warm climate, having "dry eyes", and wearing contacts for the last 38 years being among them. Hopefully, prayerfully, applying warm compresses on my eyes will help my calloused eyes. If not, I soon may be facing surgery to remove them.

As I drove away from the eye doctor’s office I thought about our world and realized that calloused eyes may be part of the problems around us.

Callouses on our hands, on our fingers, make them tougher, rougher to the touch. They also make them more tolerant of work and of more hurts.

Isn’t it the same with our calloused world eyes? For some, the eyes have seen so much pain, so much violence, so much sex, that they’ve toughened and no longer see or feel the pain.

Our calloused eyes can pass up a hungry person, or a person who just needs a word of good cheer. Our eyes and hearts have hardened.

Is the remedy to our calloused world eyes as simple as the one for the calloused eyes on my person? Perhaps so.

Perhaps boycotting or avoiding the things that bring the violence into our lives will help soften our calloused eyes and calloused hearts once more. Avoiding the news stories aired again and again, avoiding violent TV shows and movies and video games might help us soften our hardened eyes and hearts.

Once healed, our eyes may begin to see the world as it truly is and might make us realize that each one of us is responsible for changing the world around us.

The hearts and eyes of many around us have become so calloused. Hopefully, prayerfully, it won’t take surgery to remove those callouses. God’s surgery can be swift and powerful.