Our book group used to gather once a month for discussion followed by dinner and wine. But of course, aging has pushed us to find technological alternatives: aka ZOOM and dinner on our own. Turns out, there’s nothing wrong with ZOOM. It just that we see too little and too much.
Too much—For example, if one of us has a laptop pointed up, we see nostrils, huge looming nostrils, as if we were at the dentist. Unhappy association. Also, we forget that we’re not on a telephone and others can watch us primping and puckering as we study our image on the screen like it was a mirror. And cats can scooch up to stare in the screen. Not to mention someone’s partner whisking by with a bath towel around her head. TMI…Too Much Information.
Too little—we only see each other’s faces but not our feet. Feet can tell a lot. They’re like a ‘tell’ to a serious poker player. I learned that as a kid sleeping on a mat in the dining room of our tiny house. I could lie there and watch the feet of our neighbors as they played cards in the kitchen. I could tell who had a good hand. Who was going to fold. Who was bluffing. And now, when our group gets together, sitting in each other’s living rooms, I’m back in my childhood home, reading the crowd.
Pete’s feet line up like a perfectly attentive student at his desk but his fingers are drumming on his knees…bored. When Mary Lou shuffles her feet back and forth, you can tell she is all excited and can’t wait to jump in with a new-old idea we’ve all heard before. Matt crosses his feet at the ankles. Eyes closed, he folds his arms on his chests a pose he might have learned in his yoga class. His right foot gives him away. The closer we get to dinner, the more his foot waggles in anticipation of his urge to dig in. Janet wears slacks. Just as well, because it would look bad if she wore a dress. As a discussion drones on, she invariably drifts off, her eyes stay open but her knees flop apart in complete relaxation.
So, yeah, it’s good to see our buddies online. Say hi and exchange ideas. ZOOM’s better than nothing. But there’s so much more to notice and share in person.
Retired trainer, and writing instructor, Joe Novara lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Writings include novels, short stories, a memoir and various poems, plays, anthologies and articles. Read more at https://freefloatingstories.wordpress.com/
