Wednesday, February 27, 2013

talk about a cold shoulder

I was sloshing through the slush on my way home from school today when something suddenly caught my eye. While I was all bundled up, protected, and warm, this crazy man stood out in the cold wearing naught but a t-shirt, some pants, and a smile. This seemed like just the type of person that needed some cheer in his life. Now striking up conversation strangers is nothing new to me, but suddenly it's been given a purpose and this made me a little bit nervous. The thought of just walking on by crossed my mind, but I just couldn't let it happen, I knew exactly what to say. I sauntered up casual as could be and questioned this man on what he was doing out in this weather with nothing but a t-shirt on! I could tell he was taken aback when his smile started to quiver and shake, but I perceived and ended this meeting with a strong handshake. He was working on his car, and I'd seen enough people pass him by, he probably didn't even think the world still had any nice guys. He said his blinker was out and the police would pull him over for sure, I merely chuckled and replied. Don't worry about them, you seem pretty smart and I'm sure in a pinch you could come up with a lie as fast as the blink of an eye. At this point the man started to warm up to me, he let out a hearty laugh and began packing up his stuff. As he turned around to get out of the cold, I cracked one more quick joke and his response was to shake my hand. These are the people I love, the kinds who are not too concerned with themselves and although he was cold and probably upset he couldn't legally drive around, he still took the time to give me a proper farewell.
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7 comments:

  1. augustusFebruary 27, 2013 at 9:15 PM

    Hahah I really liked this. It's nice to see people actually genuinely interacting with one another. It seems to me that we lose a lot of that social communication nowadays. My question is, how are you so confident? What pursues you to talk to strangers?

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    1. FilosophicalFebruary 28, 2013 at 10:50 AM

      I figure that the more people i interact with the larger my social net becomes. who knows whether or not i'll be stranded on the side of a road an hour away from home in the future and this guy will roll past me and pull over, then give me a lift. It's not so much confidence as a strong belief in reciprocation of good deeds, and nowadays friendliness is a pretty good deed

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    2. augustusFebruary 28, 2013 at 8:33 PM

      That's a pretty good way to put it. Well I for one am glad friendly people like yourself exist :)

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  2. UnknownMarch 3, 2013 at 10:10 AM

    When I saw the title of this post, I was under the impression that it would be about a person who wouldn't give you the time of day, so I'm glad that it wasn't. I hope the guy from your story didn't get into any trouble of his blinker. You said at that when you saw this man, you were tempted to just continue walking. WHy's that?

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    1. FilosophicalMarch 4, 2013 at 1:09 AM

      I always go up to people on the streets, in stores, in restaurants, even on the bus, and strike up conversations, but since turning something I love doing into a project it has made me begin to double guess myself. But I've got my mojo back and intend on having a wide variety of interactions in a wide variety of places

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  3. Winston SmithMarch 3, 2013 at 6:58 PM

    Have you always been prone to interactions like that or is it something you're kind of pushing yourself to do because you think it would be interesting? Either way that's an awesome habit to have!

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    1. FilosophicalMarch 4, 2013 at 12:58 AM

      I've actually always done it, but since I've made this blog its added a feeling of urgency to it... Makes it a bit more awkward than it used to be, but I'm still having fun. Nothing like a sense of purpose

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