Listen up people: She fears an art form is slipping away from younger generation
I’m worried that as a civilization, we are losing a very profound skill. This talent — dare I say “art” — is flagrant eavesdropping. To back up my claim, I list three main reasons this expertise is facing extinction.
Coming at a strong number one is that legions of people can’t eavesdrop because they have a device in their ear that’s playing music, an audiobook or a podcast. I totally understand this and I have, at times, been tempted to enter the grocery store with my earbuds jammed into my auditory canal, all because I wanted to continue listening to the gripping murder podcast I was playing in my car.
But because I’m a huge fan of eavesdropping, even the dulcet tones of Canada’s gift to America, Keith “Dateline” Morrison, isn’t enough to make me enter Hen House with my ears already engaged.
The second reason why eavesdropping is going, going, gone is much more troubling. It’s because people are getting less curious. As a member of the Gladys Kravitz fan club, this frightens and saddens me.
Wait, what? Some of you don’t know who Gladys Kravitz is? Umm, she’s only the patron saint of nosy neighbors from the ’60s era TV show “Bewitched.” Sure we have video doorbells now, but that can’t compete with neighbors blessed with a burning curiosity and time on their hands.
I believe curiosity is fuel for your brain and needs to be nurtured and respected. But, alas, I don’t see that happening in the realm of everyday life. I’ll use my two children as examples. They display a lackluster curiosity about the world right in front of their faces.
Countless times we’ve been out in public and something unusual or interesting will happen and I’ll ask, “Did you see that?” or, “Did you hear that?” and the response is crickets.
No, correction. I’m not only greeted with skeptical looks, but I’m also accused of “imagining “or “exaggerating” the said incident they missed. Humph. As their mother, I found this all very disappointing. Have they learned nothing from me?
My third takeaway is that people aren’t eavesdropping because they have a profound disinterest in the human condition. Sure, I get it. All of us lead fascinating lives and nothing is more riveting than staring at our phones. But if you just allow yourself to engage in some eavesdropping, you’ll discover so much about people.
For instance, while I was recently staring at San Marzano canned tomatoes at Target, wondering if peeled or crushed was the way to go for making pasta sauce, I was privy to a fascinating conversation between two moms about their children’s high school cheerleader tryouts.
Apparently, there was some controversy because two teachers’ kids made the team and they were so lacking in talent, “they wouldn’t even make good bases.” (A base is someone who holds the “flier” during the stunts.) Right there in Target, in the canned vegetable aisle, these moms were planning what can only be described as a cheerleader coup. (Did you just get chills? Because I got chills.)
I was all in on this conversation, so much so that I pretended to read every tomato can in the aisle. Then imagine my joy when I was in the parking lot and saw one of the cheer moms get into her car and she had a high school sticker on her rear window. This meant I knew where the cheer drama was going down.
It was heady stuff and was only possible due to the magic mix of eavesdropping and curiosity. Both are skills that need to be nurtured, because sometimes what’s going down right in front of your face can be so much more engrossing than your phone.
Reach Sherry Kuehl at snarkyinthesuburbs@gmail.com, on Facebook at Snarky in the Suburbs, on Twitter at @snarkynsuburbs on Instagram @snarky.in.the.suburbs, and snarkyinthesuburbs.com.
