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Bird Watch

People watching interact from afar can be fascinating. There was three of us waiting in a lobby area early on a Saturday morning. The TV in on a channel streaming celeb stories. Most of them I have only vaguely heard of. The older lady is engrossed in the book she is reading. The middle aged man had an animated conversation with that dude that is setting up the appointments. Then he called his wife. His posture acquired a slump and his voice turned limp when I compared it to the manner of his previous conversation with the dude in the shop. Made me wonder what his backstory may have been. Is it more real for a person to have a uniform demeanor no matter who they are interacting with or adapt to the person? 

 Clearly, you can’t talk to a baby the way to talk to an adult or a senior who is having trouble remembering things. You naturally adapt your manner. Yet something about this man’s demeanor on the phone with his wife suggested that he needed to be a certain persona for peace in his marriage and that reality had little to do with it. The lady with the book took note too - she looked up briefly from her book almost as if in surprise when the man started to speak with his wife on the phone. She had heard him bantering with shop owner previously but it did not get her attention. The transition was indeed dramatic and gave us strangers pause.

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