Holiday Musings..

Like so many in this country, I work for a company that is implementing "mandatory vacation" over the holidays. Now I don't really do well with a lot of time on my hands but it does afford me a respite from a ridiculously busy time both at work and at home. It also affords time to interact with a lot more people.. out shopping.. around the neighborhood et al. Mostly I do a lot of people watching. Twice during the shopping ordeal I stood in line with people who set their bags down and then simply walked away without them when the line moved. And it wasn't like it was their turn next. The lines were long so they would move several feet away from their belongings, with the back to them and not even look back at them for minutes at a time. The obvious thought to me was that it would be very easy for some desperate soul to make off with this stuff. People need to try to keep their wits about them during the holidays. I reminded them of that fact as I called out to them to come back and get their things. During one shopping day, whilest standing in line I encountered a gentleman with what can only be described as "hideous ears." The things were huge.. at least 5 inches from top to bottom. They were not deformed or injury damaged or anything, they were just so enormous and so full of wrinkles and pits in the back that they simply looked horrid. I stared for a bit in horror at them and eventually had to turn away. Naturally this set me to thinking, "Does everyone have ugly ears from the back? DoI?" So for the next several days I found myself checking out people's ears. Yes I felt weird about it, but I couldn't help myself. What I discovered was that the guy with the hideous ears must be quite rare, as I could not find anyone with ears even close to being that ugly. Even the kids who use the big hoops to deform their ears on purpose didn't look that bad.

Earlier this night, we took our little girl to downtown San Jose to experience the "Christmas in the Park" exhibit, which is a beautiful collection of Christmas trees, animatronic displays and a little holiday festival. This festival is also another fertile ground for people watching. One thing that always gets my attention is when I see a family or a couple taking turns taking pictures with one person always being left out. I volunteered to get "one of the whole family" for a couple of families and both families seemed genuinely appreciative. It's such a simple act, just snapping a picture, but it means so much to the dad or mom with the camera, who is never in any of the pictures he or she takes. I should know, I probably have several thousand such pictures of my wife, my kids, my relatives, with me nowhere to be seen.. because I'm behind the camera. Some years back I bought a little portable tripod for just such occasions.. but it's not always practical to get everyone to stand aside from that perfect picture spot while you set up your impromptu studio.

Those little encounters inspired me to actually come back to my blog and write about it. Little random acts of kindness like taking a picture of a family at a tourist spot costs us nothing and can do so much for the recipients. I am bound to ask myself, why don't we do more of that kind of thing for one another? Our forefathers did.. even as recently as my childhood people were kinder to each other, neighbors were more neighborly, strangers on the street waved and smiled at each other. People struck up conversations in line at the grocery store and weren't even trying to sell anything. Where did that go? Strike up a conversation with a lady at the grocery store now and you're labeled as "hitting on her." Guys are a little easier, since everyone wears some article identifying their favorite teams so them you can at least talk to about how said team is doing. Sure it's idle chit-chat, but it passes the time, which you would otherwise spend staring blankly into space or trying to figure out who buys "the Star" or "the National Enquirer" and these other ridiculous rags on the shelves at the checkout. Conversation really is becoming a lost art. Everybody wants free wi-fi in their downtown areas so they can surf the web from a coffee shop.. interacting with people all over the world, while ignore those within 10 feet of them. What's wrong with this picture? When did we become so obsessed with escaping our lives that we expend so little energy interacting with those nearest to us. I love the possibilities the internet opens up for us. But, as with all good things, there has to be balance. I think part of that balance is NOT making it so easy for people to sink into some "online shell" and barely have to acknowledge other human beings sharing their same space. That's a New Year's resolution I would wish upon the whole world.. more kindness, more human interaction. Wonder if we can make it happen?