Vision Series 8: The Train

“A train will bring you back to the place you came from, but it will not return you home.”

Jedediah Berry

FACTS ABOUT VISION: There’s a Perfect Amount of Eye Contact

If you’ve ever worried about whether you’re looking at a person for too long when you first meet, you’re in luck. There is actually a science-backed length of time that you should make eye contact when meeting someone new. When you’re meeting someone new, look into their eyes long enough to notice their color. This should take just under 4 seconds. Studies have shown that this amount of time is just enough to establish a connection without making the other person uncomfortable. [A]

BOOKS ABOUT EYES: “Eye of Water”

by Amber Flora Thomas, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005

The poems in Eye of Water are derived from the narrator’s experiences in what she calls her “waking.” She traces inspiration to “the beginning of myth, to Eve in the Garden of Eden” and states: “We could spend our lives unraveling the mistake and discover that life was one great big ‘chore,’ and inescapable. And the path is full of missteps and accidents because we cannot (or prefer not to) remember all that got us to that moment. My body seems to be a symptom of the past, so no matter who touches me, all the ghosts are waiting there. The ‘chore’ becomes how to survive despite the flaws of our humanness that makes us brutal at times.” [B]

[A] The facts above are from the Magruder Eye Institute.
[B] The books noted are from a list by BiblioVault.