Traveling I: Eavesdropping

On a recent trip, which included sitting and waiting in an airport and airplane, I noticed my mental activity frequently vacillated between thinking and eavesdropping. It isn’t exactly difficult to eavesdrop when surrounded by sundry vociferous human beings who apparently surmise that increased loudness parallels increased importance. I beg to differ and impudently classify brassy dialog with pollution.

As for the lure to eavesdrop, it seems the coterie of cell phone users who trust their mundane conversations to the public ear, would cure me. Principally, when I hear what people talk about on their cell-phones my eyes roll to the back of my head as if I’ve just been anesthetized.

But, I still eavesdrop. And, I did happen upon a pragmatic, convivial colloquy between a professor at the University of Washington doing research at the North Pole and a gentleman building a house, off the grid, in the Okanogan Country in Northeast Washington State. However, boredom rather than compunction caused my mind to transmute away from eavesdropping to deliberation on writing this blog.

Nominally, I’m disciplining myself to utilize new vocabulary words in my writing. I find the words in books I read and generate a list to study. Presently, I’m reading Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff and am totally intrigued with her writing style and vocabulary. The life of Cleopatra’s is so-so, but Ms. Schiff manages to keep my attention with her writing skill. Basically, I could revise the book into one sentence: Cleopatra was bold, savvy, and courageous, unyielding and determined to beat the odds of invidious people attacking the shakers and movers in this world. But Ms. Schiff’s grasp on language is phenomenal.