Strangers always seem the most appealing, don't they? Because they are the image you use for your imagination. That's why everyone seems so familiar. You manipulate them. You use them. You are them. You project your beliefs onto them and make them adhere to the stereotype they seem closest to. Oh, strangers. They are not people. They are imaginary. That is until they begin to present something new, like countering your beliefs or stepping out of the stereotype's frame, then they become interesting.
But the people you walk by, for maybe a second or less, they are your fantasy world. They are the blurred faces in dreams, they are the randoms on the elevators, and they are all watching you, waiting for you to fuck up. They judge you.
Constantly.
Oh, and you will fuck up. You know just as well as I that there is no way to prevent that from happening.
They are not forgiving. They do not know you. They do not pity.
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6 comments:
JSMC.
I did enjoy, however, how it kindof turns around at the end - it goes from "you" judging the random passerby because "they are not people. They are imaginary" (which is an excellent line) to the random passerby judging you.
I like how this applies to even the strangers, the ones who are judging, we don't think about it but they are just as scared as the rest of us.
Max got it down, that's why there's the judgement shift. haha :)
I like it until "randoms in elevators." It is true that strangers who step out of stereotypes become interesting, I love when that happens, like somone scary/mean-looking smiling and playing with a baby sitting in front of him, etc. and I like making up stories about strangers. but honestly i don't think strangers care that much about you, they are not constantly watching or judging and will probably forget they saw you a few seconds later (unless you do something incredibly memorable,) many people probably don't even notice as other strangers pass by...Are you constantly judging every stranger you see? They don't know you so they don't care.
I have to agree that it took a bit of a dark turn after the second paragraph that I didn't like so much, but I found the last line redeemed it. I love the concept and I think you could draw on it to write a longer piece for sure.
But I would de-angst the third and fourth paragraphs a tad, if you want to take this post from good to great :)
I do judge strangers a lot (mostly just deciding if they're ugly or not), so this resonates with me, although not with the fact that they are most appealing, because usually it's quite the contrary. But maybe I'm just shallow like that...
*Likes*
Oh, this isn't facebook, is it?
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