People watching. We all do it at one point or another. Whether it happens while we're waiting in line or sipping a coffee in a crowded shopping center, our eyes are drawn to the movement and bright colours flowing (sometimes undulating) past us. We see the ridiculous combinations and fashion no-no's or the pair of shoes we'd love to have. We also see, though rarely notice, the fatigued business man or harassed looking soccer-mom, but they don't really register. These sights and sounds are picked out, examined, and discarded as irrelevant information - because that is how our mind works. According to Cognitive Psychology, attention is what allows us to function - it is what allows us to focus on what we deem important and to ignore that which we deem unimportant. Isn't that a shame, though? We are so caught up in our own worlds that we rarely notice what is going on in the rest of the world. Sometimes though, it is good to just stop and smell the roses or to just notice the profound as well as the silly things that are happening around us.
This is my account of the things we see but don't really notice, the absurd, the ridiculous, the mundane and the totally obvious.
