"Gazing at People...Some Hand in Hand..."

I watched a couple at the grocery store fighting today.

They were "fighting" fighting; their voices weren't really raised and their faces weren't red. But as they talked, walking by me, it was obvious from their tones that they were sniping at each other. I felt a bit guilty watching them as they argued, but I guess a certain amount of morbid curosity in other people's relationships is a universal human trait.

Later in my time at the store, I saw a man whose sweat pants were riding so low his butt crack was exposed to the tune of about three inches, a cashier whose sex I'm still not a hundred percent of (the name was "Amber", so it must have been a woman, but the hair was a crew cut and the body language was all male...though the voice was feminine..sort of). I saw a girl I used to work with, looking very beautiful in a summer top and shorts. I saw another couple, very average looking but also very happy looking.

I like people watching. It's not that I'm a voyeur (well, at least not any more than anyone else), but it's instructive and humbling to see and interact with all kinds of people. You get little glimpses into their lives from the snippets of conversation you hear, from their body languages, from their facial expressions, from the ways they treat others around them, the clothes they wear, the way they comb their hair. All of these things are clues into who and what they really are, and they are infinitely interesting.

People watching also serves another, more important purpose. It reminds me how very much alike we all are, ironically. Fat, thin, old, young, beautiful, homely...we all get angry and sad and happy and silly. We all worry about growing old and being sick and losing our jobs and not having anyone to love. And in the midst of all this visual complexity, these innate similarities shine through if you are looking close enough. It's really heartening in a very basic way.

Even in the midst of strangers, we can find ways to feel less alone. I just hope that as others look at me, they find my humanity reflected back to them, as I do when I look at them.