Fascination. Everyone has a pastime that he or she relies on for relaxation or for brooding. Mine is people watching. When I have a pocketful of minutes to spare, I like to do this at the mall. What greater variety of people to see? I like watching the young and the not-so-young, people in love and people in a hurry. The procedure is always the same. I buy a salted soft pretzel and a small soda, and then I sit at the same spot to watch shoppers go by. I have been doing this for years, but it is only the past eighteen months that I have been sharing my observations with others.
I get my portion of people watching on a daily basis in my profession as a teacher. Social dynamics are intriguing and mysterious, yet with some observation, one begins seeing patterns and reasons emerge, for few words or actions are without reason. The best time to watch my students is when they are not directly working on an assignment, those scattered few moments when they can chitchat with their classmates while pulling out a textbook or standing in line to get art supplies. Looking through the window, an outsider may think that these random moments are nothing short of chaotic. John grabs the pipe cleaners and weaves a necklace for himself, then he bolts across the room to sing something to his friend. All of this means something, but how much of it can I decipher? What does relaxed play time reveal about human nature and what can be learned through playing? Children aren’t the only ones who play, which I noticed at lunch today with my family. As they folded paper napkins into different letters of the alphabet, competing for who could come up with the most letters, I realized that much more was going on than folding paper. What others pass by as nothing I see as evidence of the power of the human mind.
Please pass me a salted pretzel and join me for the show.
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