The Portland Zoo of People Watching............

Its like wild life safari without fences or barriers.  The wildlife wanders right up to you, past you, around you. People watching in downtown Portland is a fascination and day of amusement like none other. Pick a mild sunny day like this past Saturday, and make your way to heart of the city and then watch. Just watch. It's like lions and tiger and bears...oh my. Giraffes, and Emus, lemurs, mountain goats. They are all there, you just have to look and be careful not to get to close. You never know which ones might bite.

There are the crazy ones which clearly carry on conversations with themselves, usually involving a great deal of profanity and anger, as they confront their inner demons. There is the older woman who still wants to believe she is twenty and dresses the part, though she no longer has the legs for it and that short skirt only reveals the truth of her age through the sad thinning wrinkles of the skin on her legs.

You have the bohemian couple wearing layers of clothing who you imagine collect rainwater for bathing in barrels in their back yard. Their dreadlocks and odd sour scent clearly indicate a lack of hygiene and their personal stand against things like deodorant and soap. And the goth couple with their female pit bull who clearly just gave birth to a litter of puppies and isn't in the mood to be social. Now there is a ticking time bomb waiting to blow as you see the aggression and pain in her eyes every time another dog walks within her personal bubble.

You have the sunbathers, though it's barely 60 degrees even with blue skies; and those who are still wearing their sweaters and winter boots. Their are those in winter caps, and those in spring hats. Children playing on the fountain, not yet turned on by the city. Pet owners who have well trained animals and those with pets 5x their healthy weight, and then those pets are are sorely misbehaved. And you wonder, how and why does a loving pet owner allow that to happen?

There are loud talkers, who reverberate clear across the quadrant, and a mix of foreign languages. There are young people in love, youth gathering for a day of mayhem in the city, married couples, dating couples, elderly,  and singles. Poor, rich, professionals, and artistic. There are the tourists, and the new to the northwest, and an array of others.

Each has a unique quality and quirkiness that makes you watch, draws your attention even if only for a glancing second. It is a menagerie of beauty and beasts, colors distinct and muddied. The street performer, the doctrinator, those with a cause, and those who just want to be left alone.

People watching is like a going to a humane zoo....Where the animals are free to wander and live their lives. To hunt and feed, mate, and move about wherever their instincts take them as long as it follows the purview of society's basic rules.  People watching is different every time you do it, everyplace you go. The animals are always unique and special and though some qualities may be similar, the fascination is in the subtleties that make them different.