Saturday 14 November 2009

Human Behaviour

I was standing at the bus stop the other day, and just a couple of yards away a water main cover had been oozing mud (granted, due to all the rain recently it looked more like oil) on the pavement. There wasn't heaps of it but it was a small shallow puddle.

Anyway, as I stood there. watching the people walking by I was amazed by how many people looked at the puddle and then looked upwards as if this black slick was a deposit from a huge bird or somehow some giant tap was dripping on the pavement.

Why do we do that? Is it that we are so taken aback by the sudden appearance of something out of the norm that we suspect divine or alien interference of some kind? Do we suspect someone has thrown it out of a window, or that someone is hanging out the window watching us to see our reaction?

I also found it fascinating the lengths people would go to, to avoid standing in the puddle - most didn't just step over it, but stepped to the sides as far as they could get away from it - was this in case it should suddenly leap from the ground and attack them?

In the 10 mins I stood waiting only one couple walked through it and they were so deep in conversation they didn't notice until it was too late, but even they looked at the puddle then looked skywards!

What bizzarre things we are!

2 comments:

GGOM said...

I love jumping and driving in puddles. But yes, you are right we are strange creatures sometimes.

Chaotic Kerri said...

Driving through puddles is a whole different game - I sooooo love doing that, and will go out of my way to drive through a big puddle!