Someone May Be Watching
In those days I rode a bus to work, and just across from the bus stop was the beauty school where she was a student. Her early class and position near a window afforded a bird's-eye view of my comings and goings. I never knew.
The belief that someone is watching can have a powerful influence on behavior. We naturally slow down whenever we see a police car. Shoplifting is deterred by surveillance cameras -- even dummy cameras. Work tends to speed up when the supervisor is around. We're more careful when we want to make a good impression.
Why? Sometimes we fear repercussions from being caught in some misdeed. Or we may simply want to please whoever may see us doing whatever we're doing. Both can have similar effects.
On the other hand, the confidence that no one is watching can inspire an unholy brashness. I once worked where painted obscenities would mysteriously appear on the elevator walls at the most inopportune times. Thinking nobody would be the wiser, the culprit vented his bitterness behind the closed elevator doors. He thought that nobody was watching, but he was wrong. Public humiliation followed.
As children mature, their parents will grant them increasing degrees of freedom. For their children's protection, wise parents will also include some guidelines of behavior. Then they will watch to see how the children do in exercising their new liberties. If Junior starts "burning rubber," he may have the car keys retracted until he matures a bit more.
But children aren't alone. Our Declaration of Independence assures us that our Creator has endowed us with certain unalienable rights, including "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." Would not the bestower of such sweeping rights also have some behavioral guidelines for our protection -- and a watchful eye to see how we're doing?
We once did. Public displays of the Ten Commandments reminded school children that murder, theft, lying and adultery are not only wrong, but also forbidden. But we've taken down those "speed limit" signs, so to speak, and with what result? Can skyrocketing crime and plummeting morals among our youth be partly fueled by a belief that there are no standards -- and that no one is watching? That's certainly plausible.
What was my first reaction upon learning that I had been secretly observed day by day? With a sigh of relief, I said to myself, "I'm glad I wasn't doing anything wrong." And this makes me wonder: What would I do differently if I really thought that someone was always watching?
A proverb says, "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good." Think about it. Someone may be watching ... and with interest.
Copyright 1999 James McAlister
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