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Recently an event in town reminded me one of my “least favorite” occurrences. Being surrounded by crowds.
Now crowds are just people like you and me who come together for an event like music or other performing art or shopping or even a family gathering, but with over 7 billion of us now, it is starting to get crowded.
Sporting venues are constantly expanding to accommodate for the crowds. Music events have become outdoor extravaganzas for the crowds. Wherever we go or whatever we do, there is a crowd around.
Again, I’m not opposed to people; why I am one, but I do like my space and in today’s crowds I get a little cramped.
Don’t know where this feeling started but I think at the State Fair when I was just a little tot and got separated from my family and wandered about lost in a sea of legs.
People do things in crowds they would never do by themselves. They dress up funny and scream and holler at sporting events supporting “their” team. People dance and sing in mass responding to deafening music. People will follow one another like lemmings with the support of each other in a crowd.
Crowds will wait for hours to get tickets or get a brief glance at someone who is presented as someone better than the crowd or gather because others are gathering.
Some crowds can be meaningful protest to show solidity in numbers. Some crowds can get out of hand and cause the animal instinct in all of us that can create harm and destruction.
The individual is lost in the crowd and perhaps that is a protective device, but I find it annoying.
I notice, even in the grocery store, if an aisle is crowded with people examining a vast array of boxes and jars deciding on which has the best elements or price per pound, I move to the next aisle, sometimes going all around the store to avoid a entanglement with someone else.
I know that is my shopping phobia but when someone comes up behind me too close for my comfort I move on.
Imagine that feeling in a crowd.
Time and space to contemplate are rare and should be cherished.
Enjoy solitude.
1 comment:
I'm with ya. Can't say I've ever enjoyed a mass sports event, and music only works in clubs and small (old) theaters; forget stadia and big venues where you can't see anything. Can you imagine living in Tokyo, Hong Kong or Mexico City? If we had sense, we'd go grocery shopping on Wednesday night when it's blissfully quiet, instead of Saturday which is what works out.
I would like to see giant crowds dismantle Goldman Sachs and Fox Noise in New York, though.
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