Dark Eyes

"you tell me this town ain't got now heart
(well, well, well, you can never tell)
the sunny side of the street is dark
(well, well, well, you can never tell)
maybe it's because it's midnight
and the dark of the moon besides; or
maybe the dark is in your eyes
maybe the dark is in your eyes
maybe the dark is in your eyes
you know, you have such dark eyes"

lyric by robert hunter

is this about a town? i guess...but, like hunter (and any other good poet) always does, he drops a nugget of truth in there.

maybe the dark is in your eyes...you know, you have such dark eyes

it' s quite reminiscent of the bible passage "the eye is the lamp of the body, if youe eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. but if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. if then, the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness" (mt. 6:22)

this statement sits in the middle of a larger statement about greed...and again, within an even larger statement about sin in general. in fact, it is from the sermon on the mount--the most famous sermon of all (for good reason).

from john stott's commentary on the sermon on the mount (pg 157):

"The argument seems to go like this: just as our eye affects our whole body, so our ambition (where we fix our eyes and heart) affects our whole life. Just as a seeing eye gives light to the body, so a noble and single-minded ambition to serve God and man adds meaning to life and throws light on every thing we do. Again, just as blindness leads to darkness, so an ignoble and selfish ambition (e.g. to lay up treasures for oursleves on earth) plunges us into moral darkness. It makes us intolerant, inhman, ruthless, and deprives us of all ultimate significance."