Eyes From Above

Eyes From Above


I walked into the store as I had done countless times before.

There was nothing unusual about the night, just a routine stroll
down the aisles of commerce. .

It was a huge store. You would know the name of the chain,
but the name doesn't matter.

Bright lights, wide aisles, and full shelves made for an awesome
store.

The modern stores don't have many helpers like the old days.
I used to work in a store. My job was to price
merchandise, stock the shelves, sweep the floor, ring the cash
register, and watch customers.

I didn't watch customers for fun. Customers would steal in the
old days. My job included helping customers find what they
wanted but keeping a watchful eye to make sure they paid for
what they found.

Those old days came to mind as I wandered or rather was towed by
anxious kids down the huge aisles.

How in the world do they keep people from stealing them blind?
There were no clerks or assistants watching us. What was to
prevent us from pocketing any number of tempting items?

I looked around, not for the purpose of stealing anything, but
of scientific curiosity.

How did they keep people from stealing?

I knew the nature of people had not improved since I was a
clerk. People stole then and they steal now.

This was an extremely successful chain. Surely they couldn't be
this trusting. Surely they couldn't be this benevolent that
they would simply allow people to have whatever they felt like
not paying for.

Surely not.

I am a scientist. I think. I analyze. I wonder. I seek
answers. I am a businessman. No people watching, plenty of
merchandise, a certain percentage of people that would take
advantage of inattention, successful chain stores, it didn't
fit. How could they trust so?

They didn't. That much I knew. I know the commercial mind.
They couldn't and didn't trust people that much.

So why was no one watching?

I knew that couldn't be either.

Maybe they were watching.

If so, then how were they watching?

I knew if they were watching it would have to be though video
cameras. I knew where they would need to be positioned.

I looked up.

Whoa!

As many times as I had been in that store and similar stores of
the chain, I had never thought to look up. I walked beneath
totally unaware and unconcerned about the eyes above.

As I looked up, I saw rows and rows of surveillance cameras.

Somewhere between 100 and 200 cameras looked down as I surveyed
the roof of the huge store.

If you didn't know already, you wouldn't know they were cameras
but I knew. Surveillance cameras are usually mounted behind
blue colored domes. You can't see in, but the camera can see
out. It can point in any direction, and you don't know if and
where it is looking.

It can swivel, tilt, pan, and zoom. They can follow your every
move. They can zoom out to view the whole aisle or zoom in on a
pimple. Hundreds of them, and I never knew or guessed because I
never thought about it.

Eyes from above that watched every move of those below.

So many walk without realizing every move is observed and
recorded.

Eyes from above.

I walked differently once I saw the cameras. I had no intention
of ever doing anything wrong, with or without cameras; I just
walked differently knowing that someone could be watching every
single move that I made.

It shouldn't have made a difference.

But it did.

We often go through life as if no one sees.

As if no eyes from above are watching.

Suppose we realized that?

Every frown, every harsh word, every wrong deed, every good or
bad twitch of our minds and muscles...

Recorded.

Eyes from above.

Encased in a blue canopy.

It makes you walk differently once you realize that.

It really does.
Jan Bagwell
God Bless !!