If you have been around any Greeks, you may have seen an old Greek woman dressed in black seem to spit toward a younger family member three times. “Ftou, ftou, ftou!” Don’t worry, it is not actual spit. The woman is attempting to break the curse of the κακό μάτι (kako mati) — the Evil Eye.
The belief in the Evil Eye dates back over 5,000 years and spans cultures, religions and geography. According to Wikipedia, it first appeared in Alabaster idols with incised eyes and spread throughout the Mediterranean region, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. Anything that has been around that long and is so pervasive has to be real, right?
This is how my γιαγιά (gia gia) — grandmother — explained it to me: The curse can be cast with an envious, malevolent glare. She said all you have to do is see someone look over and think, “Wow Jennifer looks nice today. I wish I looked that nice, actually nicer than Jennifer!”
If Jennifer forgot to add the evil eye charm to her outfit, she would most likely have gotten sick and eventually disappeared from the village. It is the ultimate middle school bullying tactic but with more dire consequences.
Park City has its special form of the evil eye amplified by radio, social media and chat rooms. You have probably witnessed the Park City Evil Eye curse being cast — it sounds something like:
“That famous director and his model wife think they are all that just because they have a hit TV show.”
“The folks from LA who run that film festival make so much money on the backs of our local community.”
“That rich guy and his buddies from Las Vegas think they can buy their way into our town by throwing extravagant parties.”
“We need to stop that tech entrepreneur from building that monstrous house on the hill.”
“Who does that corporate ski operator think they are, trying to buy favor in our community by donating so much money to our nonprofits, putting in a new lift, and stealing our town name?”
In one form or another, we have observed this middle school bullying behavior perpetuated on people in our community. In most cases, the victims are just trying to add a little something to the mosaic that makes our town so special.
I can think of four couples who have dedicated time to our nonprofits, volunteered with the elderly, or held elected offices who have disappeared from our village because of the curse of the Park City Evil Eye.
Are we protective of our way of life and influence or simply afraid of change that we run these people out of our town? Or, like the evil eye, is it an unintentional, envious, malevolent curse with ancient supernatural roots?
The wake of the curse is more than just a few missing members of our community. Our film studio is underutilized. After 43 years, we lost our biggest annual event — one that helped put Park City on the map. We are losing good people who could have contributed to our community.
I’m constantly humbled by the background, intellect and accomplishments of the people in our community, but I’ve observed some who no matter the setting or venue, revel in projecting an aura of being the smartest middle schooler at the lunchroom table.
We are heading into the municipal election season when the people at the popular middle school lunch table will try to once again pick winners and losers based on their secret popularity scale.
Their choices will reverberate through our local media, social clubs and dinner parties. Like in middle school it will become personal, and in some cases, intentionally or not, some will fall victim to the Park City Evil Eye. Sadly some “losers” may even disappear from our little village.
How do we combat this? Park City Community Foundation could hold a workshop at the senior center on how to properly spit, “ftou, ftou, ftou!” Even better, let’s get local shops to sell a custom Park City version of the Evil Eye amulet, with ski goggles. In this way, we can protect our valued community members from the ancient supernatural curse that I call the Park City Evil Eye.
Ari Ioannides, chair of the Summit County Republicans, is a recovering tech entrepreneur, founder of BootUP PD, and serves on local government and nonprofit boards. He offers a conservative perspective on local politics. He can be reached at [email protected]