Why, Stye?
old wives' tales true and sanpaku
I had 20/20 vision until the age of 40 when one day I picked up my monthly issue of Vanity Fair and could no longer read their incredibly teeny-tiny custom Didot typeface. Following this seemingly overnight life change, I hustled myself over to Wholefoods and bought a pair of 1.25 readers. They have been working for me for the last 18 years (OK - some pairs are 1.5s). Three months ago, Mother Nature threw a stye at me.
Needing readers and having a stye are not related in any way except that it forces me to think about my eye health.
Other than seeing its representation on a few sitcoms, I have never seen a stye up close. What is a stye, you ask? It is a blockage of the lash follicle, caused by bacteria infecting an eyelash follicle or an eyelid gland. It has a red/pink hue, is rather small, and clings to the upper or lower lid. If it likes you and decides to move in, a cyst will develop under the lid.
Bacteria can get in there due to “poor hygiene or contaminated makeup or contact lenses.” I have not worn makeup since before Covid and I don’t wear lenses, but I have refrained from washing my face in the morning (just washing it at night during my nightly routine of a shower or bath) for about a year. Hey - it’s twice the amount of product - cleanser, gel, cream, serum, etc. if you do it twice a day! Did we get “dirty” overnight? Are we sleeping on a hay loft in the barn? People who shower and wash in the morning rather than before bed are using that morning routine to wake up. Well, wash your sheets, people.
Rachel Eye Drops Scene from Friends
I didn’t really do anything about the stye other than see my eye doctor in the States before leaving for Ireland. After coming at me with incredibly unwieldly-looking long tweezers in his ungloved and probably unwashed hand, he plucked out two eyelashes that were stuck in my eyeball (maybe that was the culprit?). He then instructed me to use a moist heat compress over the eye, gave me some eye drops, and sold me a microwavable eye mask.
It did not work. Fast forward three months, I woke up one morning last week and decided I was sick of looking at the stye.
After talking with a friend who had also experienced living with a stye, I surrendered and again went to the ophthalmologist. But this time, different island - a Scottish ophthalmologist. The doctor came out into the waiting area to look at my eye, and surmising my age, assumed that my grandmother must be deceased and while alive, had failed me miserably by not telling me how to cure a stye. My 12-year-old voice squeaked out of me saying, “I never had a grandmother!” No failure on her part there. He replied, “Well, if you did have a grandmother, she would have told you to not only place moist heat on it but to also massage it with the back of a spoon or a hard-boiled egg.” (Insert crickets chirping and my blank stare here.) He was very kind and all Scottish-looking in his tweed vest. He also told me to wash my face in the morning. When I thanked him by saying “Thank you, Dr…” he replied, “Roger.” I made a follow-up appointment for February.
Well, none of the above would have ever happened in the States. I would have walked out of there with a prescription, a bill for the appointment, and still under the impression that eggs were strictly for eating, hatching, or color-tablet dyeing at Easter.
I ran all this by my dad in an email, and he said, “Massaging it is going to spread the infection around.” OK, well, thanks, dad. I will follow up with you in a few weeks with the result…
All this obsessive gazing at my eye reminds me of a Japanese face-reading technique called sanpaku, which means “three whites.” It refers to scleral show - when the whites of the eyes, which normally only show at the right and left of the iris, also show above or below the iris. The yin version of sanpaku refers to the sclera showing below the iris, representing misfortune. George Ohsawa, founder and a leading proponent of the Macrobiotic diet and author of several books on the topic, famously predicted the premature death of President John F. Kennedy based on his yin sanpaku. He claimed this eye condition - sclera showing above or below the iris - indicated a profound imbalance in a person’s physical, physiological, and spiritual wellbeing. Yang sanpaku is sclera showing above the iris, indicating mental instability. Charles Manson had yang sanpaku. Just sayin.’
When you are finished looking at your eyes in the magnifying mirror, here is HCR’s post for Martin Luther King Day for those of you that missed it or have not cycled back to read it yet:
Song: Eyes Wide Open
Love & Blessings,
