strangers

hi kids!!!

a while back I made a post where I talked a bit about talking to strangers. this isn't really a follow up to that post, but I wanted to elaborate more on a point.

please don't read this

you know what one of the most euphoric experiences I've had in my life was? the time when some random kid just deadass walked up to me and asked "are you a boy or a girl?" of course I gave the default answer that I had to give in order to further the social narrative I was tangled up in (and besides, my voice doesn't even remotely pass.) but kid, wherever you are, know that, if for a brief moment, you made me ineffably happy.

anyway that's besides the point. the point is that that kid's mind had encountered a question most difficult to answer and, instead of just not giving a shit, they made it their personal mission that day to find out the truth of the matter; so they just walked up to a total stranger and found out, zero fucks given.

I presume that that kid is going to grow (has grown? that was a some time ago now) up and learn that that is NOT an acceptable question to ask a total stranger. that there is a complex and delicately balanced system of social rules that very strictly (and sometimes very ambiguously) define what types of behavior are acceptable in different social situations.

this is not necessarily a bad thing of course. the kid was lucky that not only I didn't at all mind getting that question, but that it was actaully one of the best things that I have ever gotten asked in my life; but that could have very well not been the case. there could have easily been a hard boundary I might not have wanted people to cross and, a stranger, by definition, can't possibly know where these boundaries are beforehand, greatly restricting the space of possibilities for communication.

sometimes I wonder what a world where that weren't the case would look like. as much as I'm an active participant in these social conventions, I can't help but feel that the world would somehow be a happier place if we all just were like that kid, and just didn't give a single fuck. it would be a more dangerous place, that's for sure -- there would be landmines around every single corner you turned -- but that's the price of human communication anyway.

at one point I chose abject non-communication with people that mattered and I paid a hefty price. our society has chosen abject non-communication as the default stranger arrangment, nominally for free; I simply can't help being skeptical of seemingly free things. time collects all debt, sooner or later.

wow that sounded ominous. not the intention perhaps.

ANYWAY take care y'all OKAY CYA