Every committed stargazer knows that in order to see very faint objects in the heavens, one must often use averted vision. That is, the best way to see some celestial objects is to look away from them rather than directly at them. I know, it is counterintuitive; permit me to revisit Middle School biology with you. If you are like me, the only things you remember well about those years are the traumas whose scars persist so many years later. Sigh.
The retinal surface has a layer of light-sensitive cells that connect to an underlying layer of neurons whose signals are transmitted to the back of the brain (the occipital lobes) where our brains make sense of what we are seeing. The light-sensitive cells that tell us about color and fine detail, the cones, are concentrated in a very tiny area of the retina called the fovea. We see everything in front of our eyes as if this zone covered the entire retina; it does not. We see the visual panorama because our eyeballs are in constant, frenetic motion, and our brains are assembling the panorama for us. The disadvantage that affects the fovea is that it requires a strong signal. It works well on brightly lit scenes, but it doesn’t help us much in the dim or dark.
The other light-sensitive cells are called rods. They are extremely sensitive even in low-light conditions and especially so if we have spent enough time in those conditions to reach maximum dark adaptation. Now, the rods are distributed everywhere on the retina that isn’t fovea. Near the fovea, they are especially dense and tightly coupled to the underlying neurons; further from the fovea, they provide less detail because so many rods are connected to each underlying neuron.
So, when we are trying to see a faint nebula in a telescope’s eyepiece, it is helpful to look away from it rather than directly at it. Being off-center around 12 degrees is optimal. The object we are trying to see can appear up to 1,000 times brighter this way. As I said, it is counterintuitive – until you become adept at it.
Unlike averted vision whose purpose is to see better, averted gaze is used to achieve the opposite – it makes invisible that which we prefer not to see. Take squalor, poverty, disease, starvation, and homelessness. When we encounter such things in our daily activities or during our travels, we may avert our gaze so that we are not discomforted by the misfortune and misery around us. I think that all of us do it – some more than others. And I am not innocent in this regard.
Emmett Till’s mother, Maimie, insisted on an open casket funeral for her murdered son so that the world could see the inhumanity of Emmett’s murder. That single gesture re-ignited the Civil Rights Movement. I’m sure that having an open casket funeral was painful for Mamie Till-Mobley, but it was a sacrifice with a purpose. It was meant to afflict the comfortable, as Finley Peter Dunne wrote.
And this brings me to the point of this musing. We have hundreds of mass shootings in America each year. Our politicians, ammosexual citizens, gun manufacturers’ lobbyists, and much of the public avert their gaze. They offer thoughts and prayers, and they do nothing because if you don’t personally witness the inhumanity, it is easier to deny it.
I want the parents of murdered schoolchildren to have open casket funerals for their beloveds. I want images of those murdered innocents to appear on posters around statehouses with captions that say things like, “I don’t matter to Ted Cruz,” “XYZ gun manufacturer sold the firearm that did this to me, and they made a profit,” and so on. I want the images of bodies mutilated by these weapons to appear in newspapers, magazines, and billboards.
I believe that it will make a difference. Why? Because the forced birth “religious” right posts billboards of infants and fetuses with captions such as, “Mommy, don’t kill me.” Why do they do it? Because it is hard to avert one’s gaze.
So, let’s post the images of dead innocents everywhere so t hat those whose actions and inactions make mass murders possible in America’s schoolrooms, houses of worship, dance studios, and grocery stores will have to see them, and so the rest of us who want to seek comfort by looking away from the misery and suffering are afflicted by the visible consequences of our selfishness.
Perhaps this a place where averted vision and averted gaze can converge.