Appearances

After suspecting that there was once again something wrong with the world, I met up with a friend of mine. We met at a coffee shop and talked. Then we decided to take a bus to her place. We walked to a bus-stop, but there was a car-alarm that wouldn’t stop, so we decided to walk up to the next one. Then we saw the bus drive by. We caught up to it at the next light, but since it wasn't a bus-stop, the driver wouldn't let us get on. So, we walked further hoping to catch another bus. We went to the stop and waited. There was a truck with a trailer pulled over just before the corner that we were waiting on. We saw the bus stop for the light behind 2 or 3 cars, next to the truck and trailer, and we contemplating walking out into the street to meet the bus, but then decided that it was probably better to wait at the curb. That bus didn't pick us up either, and this time we were at the stop! We walked a bit further and finally caught another bus. We decided that since my friend had no food at her house, that we would go sit on the deck of her favorite restaurant. While we were there, we got to talking…

I think that there are two extremes of people when it comes to appearances; prototypically, those who care, and those who don't.

The first group, then, is those to whom appearance is everything. Those who care make sure to dress nicely all the time. They are the ones who torture themselves with make-up and high-heels. They are also the ones who spend a lot of time peeking out of their curtains at the neighbors and commenting on how messy his or her yard/car/house/etc. is. Their mothers told them that they had to be careful of their appearance. These are the people who go to meetings and when they have enough extra brainpower to not be completely riveted by the talk/lecture, they look at everyone else to find fault with them. (Look at her hair! My God, is he chewing gum? Is he doodling?)

Then there are those on the other side. These are the people who dress comfortably, sometimes matching colors, sometimes not. They basically do what they want to do and are too busy with their own affairs to be much concerned about anyone else. If they see someone else doing something weird, they just shrug. Their mothers told them that you can't judge a book by its cover and it's what's on the inside that counts. If they have excess brainpower at a meeting/lecture, they doodle or something. They might be the only one, or everyone else might be doing it too, but these people wouldn't know, because they're not looking over at everyone else.

I think that I fall much closer into the second category than the first. I feel that people can do whatever they want as long as it's not affecting me. I don't see why people are overly concerned by what I do or where I do it. Perhaps they should just doodle themselves rather than looking to see what everyone else is doing. Either way, both people have excess attention that needs an outlet. As long as they are able to follow what is going on and are quiet, I don't see that one is much better than the other. I think that a certain person who has been particularly interested in my behavior of late is probably more on the other end; always well dressed, and always concerned about appearances of herself and others. This is where I look over and shrug and wonder why one would want to stress so much about what someone else is doing or looks like.