Sitting in a waiting room watching people. It is a good
thing to do from time to time. See others respond to small cues from other
people, total strangers. Register your own reaction to a cue directed toward you
– a small greeting as the person enters your space and sits next to you – or a
roll of the eyes registering a disagreeable patron expressing his complaints
loudly nearby.
These cues happen continually around us. We mostly don’t
recognize them unless we are watching for them. And yet they provide a rich
environment of context for us to understand our surroundings. The atmosphere is
different in a medical waiting room, especially if it is an emergency room
waiting space. Furtive glances seek confirmation that you belong there, that
you and your family member are actually dealing with a medical emergency. If
you aren’t dripping blood one wonders why you are there!
In a dentist office the atmosphere is more relaxed – unless
that is the patient is awaiting a dreaded procedure he knows will hurt and
produce a week of painful recovery.
Gallows humor often is part of the scene when others are
nervous about what they don’t know is about to happen. They seek relief through
laughter. Any little distraction will do.
An airport waiting lounge is mostly boring. Travelers
waiting on a scheduled arrival or departure don’t usually exhibit animation. Of
course, if they are on a journey to Paris
or some exotic destination they may be more animated, but most of us aren’t on
such journeys. No, we are on the way home from a business trip, or on our way
toward a conference or business meeting. Or maybe we are on vacation but going
off to see an elder relative doing our duty to keep family ties fresh. While we
can, don’t you know!
Body language tells us much. Sleepers sagging in waiting
room seats are frequent views. So too the antsy children wandering around with
parents' anxious eyes keeping track of them.
I remember days past in the 1940’s and 1950’s when any
travel was exotic, especially at an airport. Travelers were dressed well and
could very well be headed for church. Nowadays that is not true. Dungarees,
boots, or flip flops are the norm; and baggage dragged by the score in search
of stowage in small overhead bins or beneath seats; wherever will they stash
all of this stuff? And why so much?
Casual life styles abound today. Unstructured and seemingly
undisciplined. Is this a culture forming or a culture disintegrating. Depends
on where you are on the age spectrum!
And then later as you mix with people with more of a planned
agenda – meetings, transactions, group thinking and solution generation – we
are pulled into a more authentic, full-range interaction.
Years ago I began expressing my inner thoughts and how they
impacted my business thinking and solution development. At first resistance was
given to that open thinking but eventually the practice became a template for
others to follow in those meetings. We actually thought together and came to
agreement on complex issues and even began the delicate process of solving
problems.
Still years later I began writing my thoughts for public
consumption. Scary at first but they were mostly well received and I worked
hard to gain understanding rather than disagreement. Evidently those efforts
paid off and writing became much easier. Not afraid of criticism I ventured
into opinion writing and then blogging. Still no raucous outcry of
disagreement. Just followers and readership from across the globe. This
following is not large nor earth shattering.
But it is a beginning to share divergent views within the human
community.
The other day I ran into someone who had read one of my
postings and he didn’t agree with that one. So he stopped reading all the
others that I have posted. I thought this was interesting. No complaint. No
feedback. Just avoidance. 800,000 words published in five years, maybe 900k.
And he didn’t like 700 words in one essay. So he decided to close his mind to
the ideas of my other posts.
I have exposed my mind to the air of the world and to the
inspection of others. Take it or leave it the ideas remain. Accepted or not it
is not a problem. What is a problem is the person who actively avoids learning
what others think. They are crippling themselves and isolating their life experience.
Not a healthy practice for them. Not a brave face to the
world, either. Just stubborn and closed off.
I wonder how many of us live in this patterned cocoon. And
what it portends for elections? Or anything else for that matter!?
September 30, 2016
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