I believe that the art of observation is waning. Watch people on their way to work on the sidewalks, in the skyways and on the bus. So many people are walking, head down, staring at a mobile device or chatting on a cell phone. Additionally, a large number of people have their ear holes plugged or covered with headphones. So many people living their waking hours with two out of three of their key observational senses (sight-hearing-smell) disabled.
Now, granted, as a geologist, I have been trained and have put into practice the art of observation. I have spent thousands of hours observing and describing the rocks, outcrops, landscape, topography, flora and fauna around me in order to accurately record and report pertinent data for my job. As a younger man, I spent hundreds of hours in the woods seeing, smelling and hearing the nature around me. As a family we traveled on vacations via automobile and watched the landscape change around us as the odometer ticked off the miles.
There is so much around us to observe. People’s faces, architecture, the weather, neighborhoods, the sounds of life and the smells of our environment. Awareness and understanding of our surroundings is being dulled and misunderstood because we aren’t paying attention.
Take some time to unplug, observe and think.
