Translating Hi
I have become what I’ve dreaded becoming:
You see the person someplace, a definite stranger. Your eyes catch each other for just a split second. Despite the surrounding crowd, you are the one that is singled out. The person smiles.
Then nods.
You instinctively nod back.
Immediately your mind begins to race. Do I know this person from some place? Did we go to school together? Why can’t I place the face? Why greet me? Am I being stalked? Freak!
You walk away feeling confused and just slightly violated. You have no idea why a complete stranger would greet you without cause. No, I don’t look like any celebrity I know, so we can rule out that factor.
The problem is that most of us live in a pea pod: we know our family and friends and maybe the guy next to us. We are shielded from everything else. As we have to deal with more and more things on a day to day basis, don’t we become just a little bit more introverted? Balancing our thoughts, planning days, filling schedules and dealing with issues and morals makes everybody a tad more introspective. We get caught of guard much more easily by little [social] anomalies. Some of us, at least.
The really sad part is my dwindling faith in mankind. I don’t expect most people to have a wholesome personality (I might elaborate on this another time), as apposed to my previous, less cynical view. But that is how it is when naivety is dispelled. Still, that is no cause to be suspicious of a friendly, al be it random, greeting. Frankly, I’m more use to not be greeted back by old acquaintances. Still, I’ll have to try to be less suspicious of a nice gesture. I don’t know if its introversion, xenophobia or grumpiness, but the cause is less important than the eventual remedy. Don’t greet everybody you lay eyes on (there is something like being too giddy), but remain friendly.
On a completely different issue: its okay to forgive yourself. Happiness is a choice.
You see the person someplace, a definite stranger. Your eyes catch each other for just a split second. Despite the surrounding crowd, you are the one that is singled out. The person smiles.
Then nods.
You instinctively nod back.
Immediately your mind begins to race. Do I know this person from some place? Did we go to school together? Why can’t I place the face? Why greet me? Am I being stalked? Freak!
You walk away feeling confused and just slightly violated. You have no idea why a complete stranger would greet you without cause. No, I don’t look like any celebrity I know, so we can rule out that factor.
The problem is that most of us live in a pea pod: we know our family and friends and maybe the guy next to us. We are shielded from everything else. As we have to deal with more and more things on a day to day basis, don’t we become just a little bit more introverted? Balancing our thoughts, planning days, filling schedules and dealing with issues and morals makes everybody a tad more introspective. We get caught of guard much more easily by little [social] anomalies. Some of us, at least.
The really sad part is my dwindling faith in mankind. I don’t expect most people to have a wholesome personality (I might elaborate on this another time), as apposed to my previous, less cynical view. But that is how it is when naivety is dispelled. Still, that is no cause to be suspicious of a friendly, al be it random, greeting. Frankly, I’m more use to not be greeted back by old acquaintances. Still, I’ll have to try to be less suspicious of a nice gesture. I don’t know if its introversion, xenophobia or grumpiness, but the cause is less important than the eventual remedy. Don’t greet everybody you lay eyes on (there is something like being too giddy), but remain friendly.
On a completely different issue: its okay to forgive yourself. Happiness is a choice.
posted by phantom-99w at 21:16
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