Put Down Your Phone.

I had gotten to the airport too early for my flight, and as I was sitting at my gate with my coffee in my hand, I realized I was too tired to open my laptop or even look at my phone.  This got me thinking; I wondered how many things we miss while we are on our phones. We have all see the video of the woman texting on her phone while she was walking in a mall and she walks directly into a fountain, head first.  (If you haven’t seen that video, please do yourself a favor and google “Texting woman falls into fountain” trust me, you will be glad you did).  I also know that everyone is on their phones a majority of the time and a million things have been written about it, but because I was going to be sitting in the airport all day, I decided to experiment.  I put away my phone and did some good ole fashion people watching.  These are just a few things I observed:

1. A guy spilling coffee all over his shirt. I got to watch this event from start to finish – he fumbled with his phone, coffee, and bags.  His coffee decided it would be better off on his shirt, you know, to free up an extra hand.
2. Some creepy guy was talking to an equally creepy girl. Then when the creepy guy wasn’t looking, the girl took a picture of him and texted if off to a friend or the FBI, no one will know for sure.
3. A little girl getting run over by her dad because she stopped dead in her tracks, mid-run, to look up at all the flip flops on the ceiling. (it’s an “art” installation at the Nashville Airport, not just random flip flops thrown up on the ceiling of the airport).
4. A couple in their 80’s walking hand in hand to their gate smiling and talking like they were taking a stroll on a beautiful day in a park. Then they stop right in front of me, the old man leaned over and kissed his wife on the cheek for no reason, and they start walking again.
5. An entire college baseball team wearing their sunglasses on the back of their heads while their gloves were on the top of their heads…yes, the whole team.
6. So. Many. People. Running, no sprinting, to their gate, which was the gate right next to me, only for them to find out their flight was delayed for three and half hours.
7. A 70 something woman who clearly was a participant in the first Woodstock, plop right down on the floor, plug her phone in, put in her headphones and proceed to dance while sitting on the floor like no one was watching, well because no one was.
8. A little girl with light up shoes, fall, take off her shoes, and throw them at her Mom yelling “I can’t walk in these they are making me dizzy!”
9. Famous drummer, Abe Laboriel, Jr., (well I’m 90% sure it was him), walked right past me…and because it’s Nashville, so many musicians, and their instruments.
10. A five-foot girl with a cello on her back that seemed to be taller than her, running to her gate like she was in a race.
11. Then when I went into the bathroom there, two stalls over, were a pair of three-foot-long flippers and a passport, just laying there on the floor.

Put down your phones and look around at all you are missing.  You might find love right in front of you. You might bump into an old friend.  You might smile. You might cry. You might find someone who needs some help, even if it’s just the tissues in your bag.  What will most certainly happen is you will be part of the present human race.  You won’t walk into a wall or a person or a fountain because you will be observing life around you like it is meant to be seen, live and real.