People Watching
On observation.
Watching people, all kinds, faces drawn or animated, tired or alert. A teacher with her class, the kids restless, their voices high and sharp. College students huddled together, baggy sweaters and backpacks. The Wall Street guy, crisp suit, no tie. A man slumped in his seat, eyes half-closed, end of a long shift. Tourists, too, like me, holding onto poles, looking at the next stop. People reading books. Scrolling feeds. Winter coats, not a Gore-Tex jacket in sight.
Scenes from the many subway rides that I took during my recent trip to New York. Such scenes are a common occurrence for someone who takes the subway, in any city with good public transport. Sadly, I don’t take the train or bus. And in the rare instances when I do, I am busy looking down at my phone. You need to be intentional if you want to observe other humans go about their life. We rarely get time to do that but traveling1 to some place that surrounds you with strangers is a good place to start.
Picasso, Renoir, Monet and Van Gogh. The intricate tile and carpet work from the Persian empires. The various object of daily life from the Egyptian empire. The marble sculptures of Greek and Roman empire. The stunning artwork on the huge vases. The entire exhibit of Temple of Dendur. Observation. Inspiration. Creation.
The act of observation can be viewed as negative. But if we separate the act of judgment, the one where we instantly take a person and put them in a box2 and let the slow-thinking3 kick in, observations can lead to a better understanding, and even inspiration. Most forms of creations start there, from observation. The stunning collection of art throughout 4 to 5 centuries of human history in The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a case in point.
The kid dancing in the subway like no one is watching. The delivery driver, Kendrick’s "TV Off" playing loud on the speaker. Woman by the door of the building, wiping tears slowly, one hand trembling. Drunk man shouting "white" at someone passing by, no context, no follow-up. The woman at the train station telling her friend "People mistake values for respect."
Observation inspires creativity but what am I even creating? Nothing for the world, exactly. But I like to believe that in observing the world we can create clarity and understanding for ourselves. That’s not to say observing people is the only way. Such clarity can also be achieved through second party means of books, movies and art etc. However, doing it once in a while cuts through the loss in translation. The joy, the sadness, the grind, the hate. Every human emotion in naked visibility right in front of your eyes.
Lincoln Center. Earphones in, neither here nor there. People in finery, shimmering fabrics, impossible heels. Dresses that might need a bank locker. QR code scanner fails, blinking red, technology problems. A millennial photoshoot on the steps, laughing, posing. Got to do it for the ’gram.
Back home. Song plays on the speaker4.
I people-watch on the way back home
Everybody on the trеadmill, runnin'
Under the billboards, out of the hеat
Somebody's darling's on the street tonight
Oh, I can't stop runnin'
I see the whole town fall
I people-watch on the way back home
PS: I tried a different style in this blog post copying Sally Rooney’s stream-of-consciousness style of writing. I recently finished reading her latest book, Intermezzo, which I kind of half-enjoyed. But her style of writing, that gets into the characters’ mind, which jumps from one thought to another, amused me. I wanted to give that a shot here. I tried to alternate between this style and simple prose in this blog.
Travel is not the only way to observe. For example, you can do the same by going to the coffeeshop around the corner of the street and achieve the same effect. In fact, I often use this an argument to say that the love for coffee shops is not the same as love for coffee. A topic for another day.
Something that's a natural instinct which studies in evolution say comes from our survival instincts.