One afternoon, my body suddenly felt the urge to step out of the
house to breathe in some fresh air outside. Then my thoughts came running to my
mind to buy some stuff for the house. After one whole day of spending myself in
the house, naturally I wouldn’t know what was happening outdoor. The moment I stepped out of the house, I felt
the extreme cold weather and saw the faint shimmering sunlight shining through
the leaves of the trees. Around the house, there were many people doing outdoor
activities, little children running around, protective mothers calling out for
their children, dogs with their owners, and many other kinds of activities
going on, yet there was a person that caught my eye to look directly at every
single thing she was in the midst of doing and her every movement. She was in
her thirties I would have thought, long haired wearing sunglasses so as to
avoid the wintry sunlight. Her hand carrying a bag full of groceries. At the
same time holding a bottle of water. She flicked through the pages of the books
in the nearby stalls around the area whilst stroking her tummy several times
and she seemed to be about 5 to 6 months pregnant. My eyes focused on her lips
which was reading whilst she took the moment to look down at her pregnant
belly, and she repeatedly do this till she made me think of what she was
uttering and whether the child that she was carrying would be able to
understand what she was saying.
The fact that she kept to what she was doing for 5,6, 10 minutes
began to make me feel amazed watching her. If we observe her repetitious action
of doing that, such repetitious action could relate to the theory of Schechner,
"The habits, rituals, and routines of everyday life are restored
behaviors. Why that had attracted me was because such action is a typical
action amongst the society and to be able to watch that kind of action for
several percentage of New York community is less than 20%, yet that action is
very interesting because not a single person would realize the underlying thing
that was happening which is the communication between the mother and the child
that is soon to be born.
From the physical aspect of a mother stroking the unborn child in
her tummy seems to be very gentle, full of care and hope that the child whom is
to be born would listen to every single word that the mother was saying. That
action itself I can classify as a ritual or repeated tradition. For a moment it
made me think of how many people in the society actually observe that kind of
action and if there is, what is their perception towards that pregnant woman
and if their thoughts are the same as mine. That woman’s action of stroking her
stomach and reading to her unborn child is of course for her own understanding
and for her self- satisfaction as to how her doing would benefit her unborn
child. At times, the mother would drink water from the bottle in her hand and
that action would stop her from reading and her focus would be shifted to the
water she was drinking. Then, she repeated doing the same thing.
Perhaps it may be seen as a normal thing, yet if an observer like me
looks at that kind of action, it could actually attract one’s attention.
Therefore, that action could have a thing behind what had happened. All these
have the relation with the choice of whether the action which the woman did
would be repeated or not. As what had said by Schechner “Freedom of choice is
offered to all – you can drink this or that soft drink. Highly adroit and
constant psychological conditioning shape the basic reactions of attraction and
avoidance. Day-to-day behavior can little more than an unconscious of ritual of
operant conditioning”. It could happen several times or not. The realization of
observing our surrounding may happen to anyone of us but which activity that
would have the percentage of attracting our attention more. For example this
woman, the probability of her buying the book could be 20% to 30% only, but
amongst the many people that are doing the outdoor activities, she was the only
person that was doing that kind of action.
That action may not be a performance which was planned or with a
purpose but it involves a second observer which is me. For instance,
“handshake”, which happens between 2 people whereby one of them has an agenda
whereas the other one has an agreement.
But did it happen with the desire to do so? And whether the act of
stroking the stomach is a desire to do so?
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