Looking at the Ocean

One of my favorite things is people-watching; observing people, especially strangers. It’s endlessly fascinating. Also just watching. 

Airports are a particularly rich ground for this occupation. In a major hub like Atlanta, New York or Chicago, it is very gratifying. You are as likely to see a farmer in a baseball cap from the Midwest as a lovely, dark-skinned woman in a colorful sari. It’s quite amazing what you can discern from close observation. You can often tell how others feel about traveling, at least in that moment. A haggard mother with a year-and-half-year old and another one on the way can’t wait for it to be over. A mysterious, dark-haired beauty, once stunning now simply striking, looks as if she doesn’t have a care. She could be an accountant for all I know, but she looks like an aging, Sophia Loren-type movie star. Or a spy.

I’ve enjoyed people-watching since I was a little girl. I grew up in a mid-sized, southern town. My mother and I (sometimes my sister and brothers would join us) would simply park on Main Street and watch people walk by. Sometimes we had an ice-cream cone or a lemonade.

This seems a lost pastime in the world of computers, laptops, ipads and cell phones. No one even looks up from their devices these days. It’s a real shame. They miss so much. It’s wonderful to observe your fellow humans. After all, they created everything you are looking at, or the ability to look at it. I miss those Main Street days. It was quiet, with quiet conversation and laughter.

One way I have partially recovered those days is by parking in a random spot and just watching traffic go by and having coffee with a friend. We used to call it “looking at the ocean.” I still do, living somewhat land-locked. Again, my mother’s idea. She coined the phrase. What a lovely way to get that quiet. It’s not time lost. It’s time gained. It’s not so much what you are doing, it’s the being present. Being still enough to observe. I sometimes wonder about all my lost time, looking at my phone.

SOMETHING IN THE WATER- NOVEMBER 2018 BOOK SELECTION

I don’t usually choose a book because of the huge media blitz behind it. This novel has had a good bit of that. Nowadays, anyone can say something is brilliant and who are we to argue? Social Media has its pitfalls in that regard. But something about the description of this book intrigued me, i.e. a mystery, a tense psychological thriller, a young couple, a desert island. You get the picture. At the very least, I thought it would be a fun, “beach-read.”

The aforesaid couple, newlywed, is on the perfect, luxurious, honeymoon. Although outward appearances seem to indicate a wonderful life, all is, we have already learned, not ideal. During an outing, the couple randomly discovers “something in the water.” However, long before that discovery, from the first page of the book, we know there is trouble in paradise. From that beginning, the narrator skillfully takes us back to where things go wrong. Full of twists and turns and unexpected complications, the author takes us on a wild ride. It’s pretty heart-stopping.

I had a hard time not wanting to choke certain characters for their repeated, ridiculous and foolish choices. I kept thinking, “Are you kidding me?” But the most interesting facet of the novel was the examination of the concepts of human error, greed, and rationalization and how those aspects of human behavior and unconnected random events can alter utterly a life trajectory.

Fun. Kind of. Disturbing.