There has always been a lot of hype about blue eyes. First, there are all those songs – “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” and “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue” and “Blue Eyes Blue” for instance. Then there was Ol’ Blue Eyes, himself, Frank Sinatra. And that expression, “Blue eyes say love me or I die; brown eyes say love me or I kill you.”
I pay attention to these things because my eyes are blue. The latest bit of information that has come my way concerns blue eyes and evolution. Apparently, the scientists tell us, blue eyes have only been around for about 5,000 years, give or take. They evolved right along with farming-as-a-career-choice, lactose tolerance, pale skin and blond hair. (Side Note: this new information is causing some people to claim that saying you are ‘lactose intolerant’ is a racist slur.’ Wouldn’t you know someone would play the racist card?)
Other news about blue eyes is that they are fast becoming a choice – and just not by using contact lenses, either. A doctor in California (of course!) has developed a laser surgery technique for permanently changing brown eyes to blue. I’m not sure why anyone would want to do that but probably for the same reasons that people change their hair color.
Blue eyes have less pigment than brown eyes and are therefore more sensitive to light. So it occurs to me that this new surgical process of changing brown eyes to blue will probably get a lot of backing from the manufacturers of sunglasses. (What color are Raquel Welch’s eyes, anyway?) I also wish I had thought about all of this in high school. I could have asked my classmate (was her name Rosalie Mentjox?) who had one very blue and one very brown eye if her need for shades was one-sided.
Going back to the ‘blue eyes say love me or I die…” expression, I saw something on the internet (of course!) about a woman who had an eye of each color being totally schizophrenic – didn’t know whether to commit suicide or murder. So there’s another ‘study’ for the scientists to look at – are there more suicides among blue-eyed-milk-drinking-farmers than in the rest of the population? Would that be eye-opening? The mind boggles…
And, of course, when you walk into Dr. Gregg Homer’s California office you will note that the music playing in the background is Crystal Gayle singing “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.”
Come on, you’re dating yourself…The Who, “Behind Blue Eyes.” Classic teen angst song from my generation. But cudos to your blue eyes. They are a blessing when people say, “Oh, he has such blue eyes.” My response, “What other color might they be?” Now I know the answer!
I know that the light sensetivity is true because Dave has been known to wear clip on sunglasses over photo-grey glasses and Amy is a great light-turner-off-er. I did not know that blue eyedness was relatively new, but it makes sense since we all came out of Africa at some point. So was it that we just didn’t need the brown eyes anymore? Mother Nature is certainly interesting!