I don't generally notice details.  My husband is a great observer, unlike me.  Very little passes beyond his notice.  I attribute that trait in him to his mind, forever curious, and his artistic, creative penchant for details.  As for me, I remain fairly oblivious to much that goes on around me.  Most particularly when I am busy doing something that demands my close attention.

Last time I was at the supermarket doing the food shopping I did notice someone.  A young woman in her early-to-mid 20s.  She was elegantly slim, her burnished hair tied back in an attractive pony-tail showing off the fine contours of her very pretty face.  Casually dressed and with care, she wore tight pants and stiletto heels.

It wasn't what she wore or how she looked that took my attention, though.  I happened to be in the personal hygiene aisle, musing over shampoo labels on sale that day.  She, behind me, was focused on shelves of emollients, creams, beauty products that I never look at.  And it was what she was engaged in that caught me short.  She, on the other hand, was so engrossed in what she was doing that she seemed oblivious to my presence.  I stood there, watching her as she carefully considered the products visually, then lifted one after another off the shelf, to unscrew their tops, break the seals and perform a sniff test.

Nothing seemed to rise to the occasion of her aroma search, so she just kept replacing the opened products and selecting others.  I was fascinated and aghast, but did a mental shrug and moved on.  I've been thinking about that ever since.  That I should have pointed out to her that what she was engaged in was pure vandalism.  She was negating the value of those products by pillaging their sterile condition for her personal satisfaction.

On other occasions I have spoken to people, but not too often, not since it became illegal and widely known that people should not be smoking in the confines of a supermarket, nor for that matter anywhere else where their habit would both disturb and cause damage to others' state of health.  This young woman was doing just that in her own way; destructive and wanton.

In retrospect it seems obvious to me now that this is a routine she must often engage in.  And obviously one that no one else has called her on.  Pity that I wasn't the one to break the mold.