If Jesus had sunglasses

If Jesus had sunglasses there’s a chance he’d have never been crucified.

They didn’t have sunglasses in the Middle East back then, so people had to look each other straight in the eye with no buffer. Must have been hard looking into the windows of his soul. At first they saw their own agonised reflections staring back at them. Then the compassion flooded through, causing visceral emotional reactions. That’s what happens around the enlightened, because they transcend the ego and have no fear. A pair of sunnies would have saved him some drama and might have stopped all those people following him around, asking silly questions they didn’t understand, or like the answers to.

It’s not that the idea of sunglasses didn’t exist – even in Jesus day. The Inuits invented the predecessor to sunnies about 4000 years ago to protect them from snow blindness. They carved goggles from walrus ivory with slits to peer through; I had a pair of slit-style sunglasses in the 90s.

Sunglasses are probably up there with one of the most important inventions in human history. They’ve certainly saved me a whole lot of grief.

It wasn’t until the 12th century that the design for modern sunnies appeared. Skilful, clever and resourceful Chinese artisans made tinted glasses from panes of smoky quartz, copper and precious metals. However, unlike the Inuits, the main purpose of tinted glasses was for Chinese judges to hide their emotions to appear impartial (I use them for a similar purpose)

Now, who wouldn’t love a pair of those?

12th century tinted glasses from China