Wreaking Havoc with a Glance: 3ayno Bitseeb

In Lebanon, as with many small countries and small towns, limited social horizons stifle dreamers’ hopes and small minds sadly prevail. People really don’t like one another very much over here and are eternally suspicious and envious of each other, families in particular are so often torn apart by incessant bickering, internal competition and bad feelings.

The end result is no one raises a finger to help those closest to them, creating even more bad feelings which perpetually propagate a pattern of behavior and conduct that borders on mean, rude and inconsiderate. The main driver behind adopting this attitude and mode of behavior is the concept of: ‘if no one will lift a finger to help me in my time of greatest need, then I will not lift a finger to help anyone else in theirs.’ ‘Après moi le deluge,’ becomes the defining maxim for every Lebanese living in this jungle of a country.

My own personal experiment at social isolation has therefore born some interesting fruit. Having kept my distance from my extended family for going on six months now I began to find that my stress levels started dropping, I found myself more focused on work with more time to spend on hobbies, like gardening.

The effect of isolation has been beneficial and very revealing. In the stillness of my own mind I have found a sanctuary for my soul and the energy I once lacked to pursue solitary intellectual activities. Even my performance at work improved. This made me extend my isolationist policy to every relationship and every situation, in social gatherings or at work.

This has made me come of as quiet weird, a descriptor I revel in, I never liked conforming to a set standard of behavior and must-do pleasantries, I’d much rather be genuine. So, if the words I am about to utter are useless and add no value short of lubricating the wheels of human interaction, I will most likely stay silent.

On the unscientific side, I found that out of sight is indeed out of mind. If no one can see you no one can envy you your blissful solitude. Envy is an art form in Lebanon and there are some whose envious glances, even the most fleeting, presage untold disasters to befall the object of their envy.

Many do not even know what effect they have on others but nonetheless still wreak havoc with a glance. The subconscious power of envy is undeniable and probably even scientifically measurable if only we knew what variables to measure.

I was told of one incident in which a fleeting, admiring glance cast towards a glass display cabinet and a collection of precious baubles inside caused the precariously balanced glass shelves inside to slip off their mooring and come crashing down one into the other until shelves and baubles lay in one powdery glass heap on the floor. This happened only minutes after the admirer left the room.

Powerful stuff! Hezbollah should bottle this negative energy and fit it to their warheads instead of explosives. Not even God’s chosen people could survive such a heartless attack. The Jewish state would surrender within a month.

The purveyors of this dark art of envious glances are often also skilled drawing room palm readers. In Lebanon, this often means they can read signs in coffee grounds, sometimes palms, much like the Ancient Greeks used to read bird signs. It’s uncanny the degree of accuracy these readers achieve staring into dried, crusty, brown grounds at the bottom of a coffee cup.

The source of this ability and why it is found in some and not others is unclear, most likely these readers are just unusually sensitive to others’ emotional cues, know exactly what they want to hear, and remember bits of information uttered by the subject enough to construct a plausible scenario of what future holds for them. Still, this does not answer the question, how can a mere glance do physical harm?

If you see trucks on the roads in Lebanon, nearly every one has an eye drawn on it in blue and white to ward off envious glances. It’s a serious business here. The young and educated ignore all this and brand it as mere hocus pocus; well those whippersnappers may ignore it at their own peril. As a friend once said: “I do not believe in the existence of the devil, but I am still afraid of him.” I prefer to ere on the side of caution and hang those beads with pride.