People Watching

Have you ever just taken a step back from the world and watched things move around you? Have you ever made yourself a spectator of the position that you are in, instead of a spectator to whatever it is that is going on that put you in that position?

We had a meeting today at one of my jobs. Everyone that was at work at that time came down to a hall, and we all met. In walks the Vice President of the company, in all the way from the next state where the HQs are. Immediately, and I mean immediately, the room fell silent. I really don’t think I’ve ever heard a room, which was full of laughter and murmuring just moments before, fall so silent, so quickly.

So the VP walks up to podium and begins to give the schpiel. I’m not really important enough to care really what is going on. I’m smart enough to pick out the snipets that can relate to me and figure it out, but most of it is irrelevant to me. So I withdraw myself from the speech. But instead of just zoning out like I sometimes do, I start to watch people’s reactions.

People watching is something that I like to do from time to time. Especially in photographs. I remember when I was a kid, I had a picture of Reggie Miller sinking a game winning shot against the Knicks hanging on my wall. When I looked at the picture, I never really saw Reggie in the photo. I used to have a great time looking at all the expressions on people’s faces at that very moment. There were people with hopeful expressions, people with frightened expressions, people who weren’t even paying attention.

I saw the same in the room today.

But I also saw a more primitive connection. He was the alpha male of our unit. His mere presence dominated the room. When he made a joke, people laughed. No matter how lame the joke. When he said something important, people leaned in.

Anyway, I just found that interesting. And the point of the post isn’t really to talk about how Sally from Accounting reacted to the news of someone being fired, but to get you, the reader to take a step back from things. Sometime, preferably when you’re not going to miss something important, take a step back and look beyond the subject to the supporting cast. Like when you listen to music for not just the lyrics, but the individual instruments. You will find a lot of interesting things.