The extent to which people can read each other is a source of constant interest and fascination to me.
I think the time I was most dumbstruck by someone’s ability to read me was this day five years ago when I visited my 88 year-old mother in the Emergency Room in hospital where she had been on a trolley for several hours.
I put on my brightest smile and she beamed back at me. Before I had time to utter, she asked me how I was. Fine, I said, but what about you?
She certainly wasn’t going to move on to my question without letting me know that she knew damn well I wasn’t ‘fine.’ Have you looked at yourself in the mirror today, she asked very calmly. Why? I asked. You look exhausted, your eyes can’t cod me, she replied very calmly. She was right, of course!
Photo: Frank Tubridy
I wonder if everyone has giveaways that those closest to them can read as if they were booming headlines. I can think of a few giveaways alright: an almost inaudible sniff; a gentle little clearing of the throat; a lightening flick of the head; a gaze held for a trillionth of a second longer than usual …..
Thing is, I reckon my late mother could have read my eyes even if I was wearing big, dark sunglasses!
What are the giveaways that tell you everything?
SOCIAL BRIDGE ~ Jean Tubridy connecting with you from Ireland 