I’ve been a
people watchers pretty much all of my life and even at a very young age I had a
great sense of humour about them. When
my father introduced me to John Steinbeck I completely related to the way he
could write about marginal people, bringing them to life and making them
interesting rather than pathetic. To be
sure one could take Danny and his cronies in Tortilla Flat as being pathetic
but I found their exploits imaginative and hilarious.
For many years I have ridden on a bus and
I daily observe my fellow passengers. In
my younger days I often thought about the older people who got on the bus,
wondering what sort of youth they had and what they had actually expected of
their lives. Today I often find myself
being judgmental of my fellow passengers due to my advanced age and zero
tolerance for bad behaviours. That
aside, I will still choose a person to dwell on and wonder about their
condition in life. The other day I
observed a young woman who brought her 8 or 10 month old puppy on board. There is something truly engaging about
watching a young dog look first adoringly at his mistress and then trustingly
at the people coming on board. Their
eyes show a trusting eagerness that melts the heart. I looked around at the other passengers, some
were grinning in appreciation but there were also one or two disapproving
frowns. How could anyone not like a dog,
I wondered?
People are interesting and I still like
to people watch.
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