So I was watching the NFL playoffs not really caring who won. I was in it for the entertainment, but I remember one vivid picture in the middle of one of the games. It was a pass play and the receiver had faked out the defending player quite neatly and came back up field making him wide open. The quarterback spotted him and threw the pass. It was perfect: waist high – directly into the receiver’s hands … but he dropped the ball! Oh man! How could he have done that! I mean, this isn’t just any game. This game is for the right to go to the Super Bowl … and to blow a pass reception like that! I mean wow, wow, and wow.

As the receiver walked back, (I don’t know his name), the TV guys got an extreme close-up of his face. It was a beautiful shot and the most obvious detail was the player’s eyes. His eyes were huge and there was white visible below the iris. This is a marker for stress. There’s a word for it – “sanpaku” meaning three whites. It’s a condition where white shows not only on either side of the iris but below or above the iris also. Rose Rosetree, in her book Wrinkles are God’s Makeup, indicates that sanpaku eyes are a marker for an inferiority complex. I’ve read other places, that sanpaku eyes are also a sign of stress. Do you think this player felt inferior and stressed? Wow, I guess so.

You could certainly think he felt inferior and stressed, given the situation, but what if a co-worker came to work one morning with white showing under the iris. You might guess that he or she is stressed. I saw the sheriff of a small town interviewed the other day on the evening news. He was dealing with some crime that had caught the attention of the national press and the press had descended on this small town. The sheriff was trying to explain that they were doing the best they could but had made little progress in solving the crime – and his eyes showed white under the iris. It was very obvious.

People who show white below the iris deserve some compassion, unless it’s extreme. Then you, depending on the situation and how extreme, might consider avoiding them.