Two Kinds of People-Watching

I overhead a student say recently "Disneyland is the best for people-watching," and it reminded me of my once favorite pastimes.

I used to love people-watching. Growing up in Southern California, there is no end to the people-watching possibilities. One of the best places to people-watch was the beach. I spent most of my summer on the beach, and the one thing we locals resented most was "inlanders." They'd flock to our home, following the "Beach Cities" signs on the 57, and infest them with their pasty white farmer tans and cut-off jeans (with belts) for boardshorts.

But, the best place to people-watch was and still is Disneyland. I agree with my student. I've been there so many times that Disneyland got boring, so I'd just sit there and watch people with friends, especially dazed foreign tourists and overweight people with skimpy clothes. This was the fun within the fun at "the happiest place on earth."

However, when you're people-watching, what're you doing?

I remember chuckling at the German tourists dressed in the most unfashonable clothing. I remember pointing and laughing at the Japanese tourists who would take pictures of EVERYTHING.

No matter where I went it was "Hey, look at...," or "Check out the...," or "Did you see...." I laughed a lot, and had a good time, that is, until I realized what I was really doing: I was looking for things to laugh at or make fun of.

Each time I was people-watching, I was really people-mocking. I'd set myself over them as their weight judge, or their fashion police, or their activities director and then mocked them for not being cool...like me.

I realized I liked watching people because smacking them down like that penguin above helped me prove how great I was, which by the way is not a lack of self-esteem, but too much self-esteem, or better, too much pride.

Now, I don't think all people-watching is bad, but I wasn't admiring God's creativity if the myriad of people and faces and bodies. Nor was I people-watching like Jesus did who "seeing the people, He felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd" (Matt 9:36). I want to be that kind of people-watcher.