Not talking about very important things or fields of work, necessarily. But little, everyday things that, when you see or hear them, utterly fascinate you.
For me, one thing is fire. I know it’s very common to be mesmerized by flames- I could just stare and stare. I’m not a pyromaniac or anything, but a nice campfire or fireplace fire is a compelling thing.
Another thing is pictures of people when they were young and then old. The contrasts and similarities between the same person at different ages is so very fascinating to me. I could spend hours looking at pictures, all the while going, “Wow! That’s crazy!”
One more thing I’ll gawk at endlessly is newborn babies. A tiny little person, a blank slate, a new beginning. And with all the things that can go wrong in utero, I find it miraculous that so many humans are born such models of perfection. Holding a newborn baby sends endorphins coursing through my (female) body, creating a high as powerful as that of any drug. I get high on babies. Mmmm, babies.
So what mundane things set you off?
I was thinking not a damned thing and then I saw you referenced one of my favorite words and concepts: fire. I have been clearing land on this property for 5 years and have set over 100 clearing fires. I am pretty much the bane of our volunteer fire department and the worst that they have done is show up with a fire truck and make me let them spray it down (it brings tears to my eyes I tell you). Anyway, I hate New England winters except…fire burning season starts on January 15th and lasts until My 1st so there is something to live for. Fire is beautiful.
My only other thing is airplanes in any form. I will stop dead in my tracks to watch a jet overheard and I never get tired of them. If I lived close to a major airport, I might look up and just have my gaze stuck there.
Every time I defragment my computer, if I have the visual thing turned on (with the little blocks looking all fragmented then changing colors and getting consolidated before my very eyes), I just have to stay and watch it through to the end. I can’t take my eyes away. It makes me feel productive.
Canada geese are as common around here as rocks and considered quite a nuisance by many, but whenever I hear them honking in the distance, I have to stop and watch the skein of geese fly overhead. It just transfixes me.
Topographical maps. Give me a stack of them, from any place with even moderately interesting terrain, and I’ll be lost in them for hours. I’ll hike a mountain and then run home and pore over the map of it until I feel like I can relate every contour to a memory or a photograph. I’ve got two big atlases on my coffee table; one of the World, the other of North America. I’ll just flip through them, for no other reason but to ponder the shaded relief maps with different colors that indicate elevation. I’ll spend an entire evening just looking at mountain ranges and islands, canyons and trenches. Most people look at a map to find out something specific about a place. I do that, but far more often I look at maps because I find these representations of landscapes interesting in themselves, and I like to picture those places in my mind’s eye.
I’m not sure if it gets any more mundane than this, but I’m fascinated by watching laundry – you know the front loading kind of washers and dryers with the window? I could watch the clothes swish around for hours. It’s better than TV.
There are these huge cranes on the docks here in Seattle, across from the stadiums. They were all orange once, now they seem to be painting them blue. They fascinate the hell out of me, and I’m not sure why. I stare and stare at them. They’re awesome.
Machines maknig stuff doesn’t hold my attention unless it’s a particularly interesting process, but I can watch people make stuff for hours. Chopping vegetables, cooking stuff, putting things together, sewing, and so on.
It goes double if they’re assembling or creating something familiar from scratch- a stool out of a tree stump or something. And triple if it ends up being something beautiful like a painting or sculpture or really pretty cake
I’m fascinated by the styles of the past, and the way they slowly change into eachother. I can watch a bad movie from the 60s, 70s, or 80s just to observe the crazy styles from back then.
Too many to list. I share fascination of fire, waves, airplanes and magnets with previous posters. I also love clouds, especially on windy days.
But the one I think will set me apart is dragonflies. I don’t know what it is about the flying sticks; they just fascinate and intrigue me. They’re beautiful and somehow mysterious, and their flying technique is so different from most other flying animals I see.
People who play stringed instruments like guitar or banjo. I can watch their hands move for hours at a time, especially if they’re really good.
And while I also dig fire, I can watch waves ripple across a pond or a lake all day long and just be content watching the light play across the surface. I always figured that’s what really got me into fishing. It’s not the catching so much as it is having a good reason to be standing there all day at the lake.
Mine is storms. The way the light gets really strange just before a storm, the boom of the thunder, the beauty of the lightning, and the way everything seems to be so clean it glows. I feel a physical change in me when it rains; like that’s the only time I’m really awake.
Oooh, storms are good too. Waves during storms would be extra mesmerizing. Of course, it would be preferrable if one was watching the waves during a storm while in a protected environment of some sort rather than on the open beach.
Post-it notes. I love them. I love to peel a brand new one off the top of the pad. I love sticking them to things. I love folding one in half before I throw it away, so that it won’t stick to the garbage can.
Now that I think about it, I am fascinated by stickers in general.
USED to be fascinated by velcro. LOVED that rrrrrripping sound! Then years & years of velcro’ing little boys’ sneakers, little boys’ summer shorts, little boys’ Halloween costumes, and voila! I was cured! Or bored. Or both.
Snow. Could watch snow fall for hours and hours. Especially the huge wet flakes of early winter that fall in a hush, and quickly blanket rooftops and lawns.
Want snow NOW. It doesn’t seem so mundane in all this heat, so maybe snow shouldn’t count. But it is endlessly fascinating to me.