Curious Strangers

Strangers are interesting people. Sometimes they are nice, sometimes they are mean. Sometimes normal acting and sometimes strange acting. Sometimes ugly, sometimes good looking, and sometimes, good looking til you get a little bit closer. Above all else, strangers are curious and easily entertained. As a rule of thumb, people are interested in things that they don't know about. Everyone has a little bit of Curious George in them. They always think they are so investigative and observant, but you really have them in the palm of your hand if you have something interesting. Of course, there are the outliers, but if you show someone something amazing that they have never seen before, you are likely to be their best friend until that amazing thing becomes normal.

Take for example, my bullwhip. As of late, I have become intrigued by the sport of whip cracking. (I use the term 'sport' loosely. Perhaps 'pastime" is a better word) I won't go into all the reasons why I enjoy it, but the main reason that I like it is because it is loud. I'm a guy, guy's like loud noises--we'll leave it at that. Because it is so loud, my neighbors have taken to muttering at me whenever I pull it out, so I have begun taking it to a secret secluded location so as not to disturb them. This secret secluded location, while secluded and very secret, is not void of all human life, and there are the occasional joggers, hikers, dog-walkers, bmx-ers, or pot-smokers who come to enjoy the secret secluded scenery.

If I were standing in my secret secluded location whistling a jolly tune, reading a book, eating a sandwich, or sleeping, I am very sure that I wouldn't get so much as a peek from these lovely passers-by. (unless I was eating a sandwich as a pot-smoker passed me). That is because all of these activities are completely normal and socially acceptable. Whip cracking is very abnormal. I personally have never seen another person crack a whip in real life in my entire existence (Except those who I have let borrow my own for a brief moment). Needless to say, I get very strange looks, and people who I am sure would have no reason to ever talk to me if I had not piqued their curiosity, well...talk to me.

Over the past few days, I have begun to keep track of all the people who have talked to me, and what they have said or done, as well as the people who have suspiciously peered at me, and then kept their distance or gone on their way.

First, there was the stroller-pushing jogger-mom. She had two kids with her, one was being jostled around in a stroller which she was trying to push over the very bumpy dirt path, and one was on a leash. I'm not kidding. I'm not sure which kid was more uncomfortable actually. As she rounded the path I visibly saw her slow down and her eyes got extremely wide. The little kid on the leash was turning his head back and forth, no doubt looking for the thing that was making the loud noises because, surely it couldn't be the strange man in front of him, holding the long string. She went from her jog to a forced walk, and it almost looked like she wanted to turn around and run away, but I quickly rolled up my whip and turned on my pretend-friendly face. "What is that thing?" were the first words that came out of her mouth. I looked at the whip, then looked at her, then looked at the whip, then back at her and said. "It's a whip." She looked like she genuinely didn't know what a whip was. "Oh wow." The closer she got to me, the slower her pace got, until she got past me, and then started running really fast again. Little leash kid was kinda getting dragged along, but he didn't seem to mind cause he was still looking for the loud noise maker.

To my suprise, she actually came back the same way a few minutes later. Little leash kid was off his leash now, and had been spying on me from between two bushes for a couple minutes. His mouth was literally open and he kept looking back from me to his mom, and back to me. The kid in the stroller looked like he was about to throw up cause of the bumpiness. Jogger-mom must have come to the conclusion that I was alright to talk to because I didn't attack her on her first walk by, so as she jogged by again, she said, "Wow, that is totally cool!" I wanted to chase after little leash kid and scare him, but I thought better of it.

The second memorable experience I had was with two old people. By old, I mean somewhere between 40 and decrepit. As they came around the bend with their dog, their faces didn't visible change. The couple walked straight up to me, no fear in their eyes, smiled and asked how my day was going. I was suprised because for the most part, old people are timid and scared of everything, but these people were brave. Then, the man told me that whip cracking was a lost art. That made me super stoked. They actually werent very interesting other than that. Their hearing aids must not have been working, because the whip cracking didn't seem to be bothering them.

Strangers are really funny because when they are checking something new out, they always think they are extremely sneaky. I can't count how many joggers have run by pretending not to notice me, just like whip-cracking is the most normal occurance in the world. They might even have whips of their own that they crack a few times every morning, just to wake up it seems so normal to them. What gives them away is the fact that they pretend not to watch, but they go significantly slower when they are near me than when they are coming up to, or leaving me, and they are also peering at me out of the corner of their eyes. Dog Girl is a prime example. She literally made four passes around my little clearing in the field before walking through the middle to investigate from a closer angle. She thought, of course, that because she was outside of my clearing that I couldn't actually see her walking circles around me. The whole time, her head was pointed straight ahead in front of her, though it was easy to see that her eyes were pointed sideways to see the strange phenomenon. After she went through the clearing, she made another couple passes until she convinced herself that her curiosity was placated, and then walked away. She did, however stop a couple times and pretend that her dog was peeing on a tree so that she could turn around and watch again. It was easy to tell that she was faking the dog pee though cause the dog kept on trying to walk down the path and she was holding the leash so that it couldn't go anywhere.

While I have had many experiences with people walking by and making strange comments and giving me weird looks, the final one I will share with you took place from a distance. From across the field, I could see a bike rider starting to go up a small hill. As he neared, the top, I gave my whip a particularly hearty crack. It must have startled him because his head spun around looking for the source of the loud noice and he nearly fell off his bike. He managed to barely recover before sticking his foot on the ground and stopping, getting off his bike, putting the kickstand down, taking off his helmet, and watching me for a full three minutes. While I never actually spoke a word to him, or he to me, there was definitely a mental connection between the two of us. He was enamored by this new and exciting experience, and I was glad to perform my meager skills for him.

How often do you go up to a random person and talk to them, or how often do you have random people come up to you? People, curious as they are, do not like to leave their comfort zones, and the curiosity has to outweigh the risk factor for the stranger-barrier to be broken. Once it is broken, new amazing things can be found, so don't be afraid to go talk to that bum, street-performer, or whip-cracker--it might just be me. A word of advice though--just go for it, don't pretend like it is normal and try to watch it from a distance. You might think that you are being the observer, but more than likely you are being watched by your quarry, and you look pretty dumb.