Contemplating Jewish men from where they can't see me

[old_cutter_john]

This morning outside my local supermarket there were a couple of guys collecting signatures on a petition. I walked past one of them twice; the other, once. The one I passed twice ignored me both times even though he was otherwise unoccupied. I said, "Howdy!" to the other one, and nodded, and he still ignored me. I'm getting real good at this

Comments

[mallorys_camera]

I think the street invisibility is an age-related thing. I turned invisible when I passed 58 for some reason.

The petition invisibility, though, is just plain weird. Maybe they sized you up and figured you were unlikely to sign?

[old_cutter_john]

It's hard to size me up: I transmit familiar but contradictory cues, and that's intentional. I'm sure they did figure I was unlikely to sign. They probably even figured I was likely to argue. They were almost certainly wrong about my arguing, and there's some chance they were wrong about my signing. I'm left somewhat curious as to what the petition said, but I can't have it both ways, and I prefer to have it the way I have it.

[anais_pf]

Wow, I'm impressed that you're reading fiction. You don't even read books! Or so you claim.

Congratulations on being ignored by the signature collectors.

[old_cutter_john]

Every now and then, God tells me to read something, and I do. This one is ugly. Slogging through the muck, as I wrote.

[shashigai]

maybe an autism thing? i cannot meet people's eyes. when i fake it, people see me. when i don't or can't, they don't.

After I read the great cosmic mother i had trouble believing in anyone's god other than my own. others' gods always seem to have some political purpose.

[old_cutter_john]

Autism is what's motivated me to adopt a style that makes people reluctant to engage me. The style works. Eye contact? I was wearing wrap-around sunglasses.

Most widely-accepted gods are configured for political purposes. Mine isn't. I use the exclamation, "Allah be praised!" for convenience rather than because I believe that God is as Mohammed described. I use similar phrases that refer to other configurations of the Deity, and I use them in the same manner. In time, if I write much and you read it, you'll get used to my relationship with God. But I don't write much.

[old_cutter_john]

While I was commenting in your journal, too!

And as I wrote there, it takes me a long time to finish a book.

How I am? Kind of like the protagonist of the movie, π. Without his adversaries, but with PTSD to make it feel like that anyway. Still, I'm enjoying life.