I was waiting for the bus after work. Ofttimes, I’d pull out a magazine or newspaper to read, and I almost ALWAYS have something to read. But on this particular day – and it was a particularly lovely afternoon – I just didn’t feel like it. Using my backpack as a pillow, I lay on this granite slab in front of my work building and just observed. My goodness, the New York State flag is REALLY frayed, much worse than the US flag. I had never even noticed this before.
I tend, I think, to observe more than the average person, some of it, admittedly, mundane. Most of them get on the bus, or in their cars and immediately get on some sort of electronic device, lest not doing so would leave them adrift in the world. (That state law banning handheld devices while driving? A joke around here.)
One of the elevators in our building opens to let people on, then closes, opens, closes, opens, then when it finally closes, it buzzes as though someone had been holding the door open.
We have new phones at home. Actually, I bought them 14 months ago but didn’t install them for almost a year, when the phones suddenly going dead were too much of an irritation. What I didn’t know is that the phone announces the caller, usually badly. “Call from. Shen-ec-tdy. En why.” (That was supposed to be Skin-EC-ta-dy.) And it does it two times, then cuts out after ‘Call from’ on the third round. You have no idea how much silly, but cheap, entertainment value I get from that. (Some have suggested that I am easily amused…)
Friends are amazed by how well I know the WALK light patterns of irregular intersections in the city of Albany. I take it as a defensive measure against getting run over.
I need to remember to spend more time observing and less time with busyness, filling every available minute. It’s fun, and it relaxes me.
Feel the need to LISTEN to See by the Rascals.
While I agree with you about less busyness and more seeing I tend to get annoyed with what I see. Maybe that’s why I tune out what I see with my mobile device. Perhaps I’m not as easily amused as you. This is still a good read in any case, thanks for your ‘rambling’!
Yes… I TOTALLY need this, too. I was hoping this Memorial Day to go to a forest preserve I really love and just “see.” (Kinda… freaking cold. And wet. Blarg.)
I love to go without a camera or recording devices and just “be” someplace. It makes it less of a stage production for family/ Facebook and more just for me.
I like people-watching, too. Too much; my grandma warned me I can be a little creepy about it. But even people I know I like to watch, because you can see them in a totally different way if you really look.
Roger, I see everything and then underneath some things! Mindfulness is a key to my navigating the world with manic depression, so I look both ways crossing the street, I look and often comment on some of the amazing clothes people wear in this wonky city of Madison. I acknowledge Miss Forward atop the Capitol Rotunda. I hug trees. Really.
This is a deceptively simple post. The truth is, the more you notice others, the less you have your mind out of all the nauseating factoids, sound bytes, and other media gizmos that are the new Opiate of the Masses! Amy
I’m not surprised that you spend so much time observing things. It fits you so well. I’m a lot the same way. I spend a lot of time getting lost in my surroundings, especially noting little out of the way places that I would like to visit some time.