Humans are weird. The bay is a great place to people-watch, I'm constantly surprised with the general presentation of people. Be that what their face looks like, how they dress, their body shape, or what they say and how they sound when they say it. It's not a negative thing. Call me judgemental, you are too, no matter how much you deny/embrace it. It's human nature to see, process and respond. We're spoiled for choice with the variety of our humans here!
For such a small place (on a world stage) we attract a lot of different nationalities, we are home to many different lifestyles. But there is one thing we all do that I'm finding increasingly odd... Clap. I've been in the bay for 3 years now, over that time I've asked a lot of different audiences to 'give a round of applause', 'put your hands together' or 'make some noise'. But the actual process of clapping and why we do it to show appreciation is kind of odd, don'tcha think?!
When we clap, essentially we are causing a severe disturbance to air molecules around our hands, upon the meeting of our hands those air molecules rush away from the point of impact and create a vacuum behind them. That's what causes the sound. That's what Google said. I hate physics, failed it in 5th form, but even I found that slightly interesting. You're totally clapping right now to test it, right?! Busted.
Why do we use that process to show appreciation? It seems weird to crash the ends of two limbs together to reward someone else's achievements. Sure it's quick and easy, but don't they deserve more than that?
I got thinking about all of this while sitting in the crowd, clapping like a man possessed at the BOP Region Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards, late last week. Sitting in the hall at Historic Village, I was dumbfounded with the generosity, compassion and time given by these stunning local examples of the human race. Severely disturbing some air didn't seem enough to recognise their achievements. So I stood and clapped and made some noise with my mouth. Think of the physics/biology behind those actions, mindboggling! It was the least I could do!
