Log in My Own Eye

Have you ever had anything stuck to your eyeball that you just can't seem to get off? That's what happened to me on Sunday; while biking to school, something -- probably just a little spec of dirt -- flew into my eye and started irritating me to no end. It was crazy; I've biked literally thousands of miles through all kinds of terrain and conditions and never has anything like this happened before. The worst part: I couldn't read because my eye just kept tearing up and it felt like something was constantly scratching my eyeball (which it was). I could see the thing, but no matter what I did, I couldn't seem to get it out. I tried flushing with water, dabbing with Q-tips and tissues, and just rubbing at it with my finger. None of that's fun, since your reflex is always to blink to keep anything out of your eye, and none of it worked, either.

So yesterday morning, instead of attending ConLaw, I lined up at the GW Student Health Center, not sure what they could do, but hoping they could help. And help they did! They saw me almost immediately and the doctor had the speck out of my eye in about one minute from the time she said hello. She simply put some anesthetic eye drops in my eye, then dabbed at the spec with a Q-tip and the speck was gone. Sure, I'd done the same thing, but I'm no doctor. She said the cornea was slightly scratched and would hurt for a while, and she was right, but I still felt a zillion times better immediately.

Regular readers may know that I haven't found much about GW to praise, but that changes now: Thank you GW Student Health Center! You're the best!

While the thing was in my eye, I just kept wondering if it symbolized anything. Specifically, I wondered if there's something especially big or glaring I've been hypocritical about recently. Why would I wonder that? Well, this might be the first time ai has quoted from the Bible, but heck, there's a first time for everything, so here you go:

1: Judge not, that you be not judged. 2: For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3: Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4: Or how can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? 5: You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)

This passage was used to great effect in "Iron Jawed Angels,", which, btw, I highly recommend. That aside, it's really pretty good advice to live by. Funny how those specks in your eye seem to bother you more than the logs.

Posted February 24, 2004 05:50 AM | life generally