Private Public Cpnversations

So I'm riding the commuter train to Boston...

I should start by stating I'm sure I am one of the people who have private public conversations, so I'm not saying 'they' as in not me too. In fact since I like to write, I listen in hoping for nice little tidbits I can claim I wrote.

But I suppose listening in's the name of the game today. We're so bored with the boring conversations we have, we want to hear the boring conversations other people have.

As Pete Townshend sang in a lyric to the song Naked Eye: The world begins behind your neighbor’s wall.

Which leads me back to....

I'm riding the commuter train into Boston the other day and this woman is talking with her friends LOUDLY, not in a manner that would require me or anyone in the whole compartment to listen in...or any other compartment...or various train stops, quickly passing town centers, huge airplanes taking off from Logan...

Anyway, she says after her friend brings up a woman named Lisa: (this is a virtual quote)

Oh, my god. Lisa is a CRONIC liar. I mean it, not just liar, but chronic. She will say anything that will help her get ahead. Don't get me wrong. She's a great person and one of my good friends...

(Now how could I get you wrong?)

Her friend who's speaking fairly quietly as the person she's needs to hear is only two feet away and therefore, try as I might, I could only pick up a bit of what she said. The jist being:

Lisa has been moved into her department at work.

The loud woman bursts in:

Watch out for her. I'm telling you, she'll pretend to be your best friend just so she can stab you in the back when the right time comes. But, that said, she really is a good person.

(How on earth from your description could you possibly think I would get the impression Lisa is anything but a good person?)

Another time, when I was working at a movie cinema (a horrible one, one no one should ever work for. I won't tell you their name as that would be indiscrete. AMC. AMC Theaters)

A quick by the way: I understand people in a long line can receive cell phone calls when they reach the front. I mean, what are you gonna do? Oh, wait, I know. CALL THEM BACK. Or step out of line when I inform you as soon as you are ready I will take you immediately...and the thing is: IT'S NEVER ANYTHING IMPORTANT.

Here's the real kicker: When someone in a long line waits til they're at the front to MAKE A CALL.

Anyway, my quick by the way is over:

So, one of these people who MAKES a call when they reach the front speaks with a friend. I only hear his side of course.

Oh, jeez. Bob got caught cheating. With Linda? Linda?!! You're sure. Why her? She's not even that good looking.

(As if there's some "get out of cheating" card if someone is good looking. As if it would make it all okay, but now the guy's stuck his foot in it.)

Then he moves on:
No, not Richie. And they're sure? Testicular cancer.
(then he covers the phone and says to me)
That reminds me, I'll have some Bon Bons.

Okay, the Bon Bon thing didn't happen, but everything else did.

I fear we are finding ourselves ever closer to a version of 'if a tree falls in the woods and no one's there to hear it, does it make a sound?' to...

If a life is not seen or heard, is it lived?