Much of the time spent at the gym is in front of mirrors. It's not like being in front of mirrors at home, putting on makeup or checking your hair; effectively striking a pose. At the gym you're more concerned with posture and movement. I found myself today catching glimpses of my face as others might see it.
My eyes, despite having a few crow's feet, don't seem to have changed. a sort of French navy blue and with the upper slope just the same as in my baby pictures.
Since I carried out the family album project I've been thinking about just how much we change or even whether we do.
In My Day
The Dixon family album was a sort of Magnum Opus of Daddy's. He attempted to capture all the various moments that made up our childhood. This started almost as soon as we were born. I found myself looking at those photos of us with a lifetime of experience and knowledge of my siblings and trying the see today's people there.
It was so easy! The eyes that gazed out from the pictures are the same as I see now.
David, with his quizzical look that's ever so slightly past you and looking towards some meaning not quite of this world.
Chris with his eagerness to be doing, paying close attention to the job in hand.
Me, with my steady look that, even at 18 months, brooked no nonsense.
And Beatrice with her bright anxiety to be part of everything, even things she didn't understand.
There's a picture of Chris in the album, aged about 18 months,where the posture and expression are so like those on his current Facebook picture that it's funny. Leaning back, one arm across the back of the chair, smiling, so sure that he's top of the heap.
Of course, as life has proceeded, we've all experienced joy, pain, anxiety, grief, fear, laughter. And those are reflected in our eyes also. But our eyes are not so much the windows to the soul but the windows of the soul, shaping how we respond to the world.
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