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This was originally posted on the Rant page.
A True Rant : National Look Around You Month
Have you ever noticed that nobody seems to notice what's going on around them anymore? I'm not talking about current events, or world news or anything like that, I mean the things that are physically happening around them. They walk/drive/live in a little bubble of oblivion, completely missing what's 10 feet away from them because they have their heads down, their iPods turned up, and single-track minds. People, LOOK UP ONCE IN A WHILE! There's a whole world around you filled with fascinating things, IF YOU'D JUST PAY ATTENTION! It drives me crazy to be riding in the car with someone and say 'look, a hawk!' as we speed past a hawk perched by the side of the road, only to have them reply 'what? where?' (It makes me less crazy and more worried when the oblivious one is the person driving... if they're not looking around, what are they looking at?)
This phenomenon was proved to me last night. Around 9:00 I was walking to the campus center to print out some junk for class when I looked at the sky. There was a huge ring around the moon. I've never seen anything like it before. For some reason I had stuck my camera in my backpack that morning, so I pulled it out and tried to take pictures of it. These were taken with a 5 second exposure and no tripod, so they're not the greatest, but they give you a rough idea of what it was like.
That's an average-sized, high-in-the-sky full moon, and it's a good 5 moon-widths to the edge of the ring. It was huge. With my hand about 6 inches from my face, it was bigger than the spread of my thumb to pinky. The middle of the ring was cloudless... you could see a star by the moon and an airplane's vapor trail across the middle of it. I have no idea what made it, or why, or how, but I can honestly say that next to the northern lights (and maybe the stars in Nebraska), it was the most impressive thing I've ever seen in a night sky. AND I WAS THE ONLY PERSON WHO NOTICED IT!
I stood on the sidewalk in the middle of campus for a solid 40 minutes staring at it. During that time I dragged 8 people out into the cold to show them. (They were just as impressed as I was.) Also in that span of time about 30 people walked past, some even stepping around this lunatic standing in the middle of the walkway taking pictures of the sky, but nobody even looked to see what I was looking at. I told people. I pointed. I said 'hey, look at the moon.' 'Look at the sky... do you see the ring?' 'LOOK UP!' and except for a few exceptions they just kept on walking. Head down, iPod on, cell phone in hand, brain off. The few who did actually look up were impressed. Never mind the fact that to get to where I was, they had already walked for 5 minutes without noticing it on their own.
I'm declaring February national 'Look Around You' month. Look up as you walk to class. Hang up the phone. Turn off the iPod. Listen to what's around you. See the hawks by the highway (there's a lot of them; you'll be surprised). Notice sunsets and clouds. Look at the patterns the bare trees make silhouetted against the winter sky. There's a whole world of cool stuff out there, just waiting to be noticed. Don't waste it.
After putting this stuff up, I had two people spontaneously share their thoughts about it with me. The first came from my friend Caelin, who had this to say...
ok, i read the "nat'l look around you month" and i'd have to completely agree. it's hit me a lot lately how absolutely gorgeous the world around us is. dang. the snow on a sunny sunday afternoon. add in the rolling hills of western new york and some phenomenal barns/farms and pretty much i've had to pull over and take pictures on 2 seperate occasions when i wasn't even setting out to do so (which i've also begun to do... i'm creating an album of interesting trees. very fun, i must admit. they tell stories.)
The next day my Aunt Leah sent me an e-mail with her story....
One night fairly recently, coming home from work, (one of my two days!!) a large, 'shore'-type bird flew over the parkway so low, I was actually afraid I would hit it! Slowed down slightly and enjoyed his slow and lazy flight into the marshes. It was fantastic! And I wondered if anyone else driving behind me saw it???!!! Probably not as exciting as seeing a real-live bald eagle, but... Love ya. AL
So I started thinking, why not invite people to share their stories? I'm not only declaring it to be National Look Around month, and I'm also challenging you to notice things. In return, I'll post what you find on the site for the world to see. If you have a digital camera, or a film camera/scanner, take pictures and send them to me. If not, write about it. This link is to a submission page dedicated to the cause. It has spaces for your name, e-mail address (so I can get back to you), a comments/explanation box, and a bar to upload a file. (pictures, text documents if the little box isn't your style, whatever.) Hit browse, find it, then send the form. Sorry if you have multiple files, but it can only do one at a time, so you'll have to send them separately.
Now get out there, and get noticing.
