Driven
To see this great country, you must drive thru it (or Forrest Gump it if you have no car). I have just driven thru about 1/4 of it. NM,AZ,NV,CA,OR,WA,ID,MT,WY,CO, then finally, back to TX. 4793 miles to be exact. I enjoyed every minute of it, well, not every minute: Dalhart, Tx. smells like one giant cow ass.
But somewhere along this trip, I began to notice something unusual; there were faces I could swear I'd seen before. So familiar were these faces that I was often tempted to just go up to them and say "hey, wow, I KNOW you!" I found myself staring at them intensely, like a serial killer, studying their bone structure and mannerisms for ANY confirmation to my suspicion.
There was a man I saw somewhere near Death Valley who I know once delivered a truck to my store. Possible? Yes...but the odds of meeting him in some random rest stop in line for the pisser is just too absurd. Then it happened again, only this time it was a server at a KFC where we stopped to lunch. The Golden Gate Bridge at 8 o'clock in the morning, offered us fog and a flock of pro-bicyclists making ready for what apparently was a daily or atleast weekly routine. Among the 30 or so men and women, there was one guy I could swear had been my neighbor. The lady at the toll booth. The tour guide on whale watching day came over to me out of a hundred or so of her captive audience members, says to me "you look like you wanted to see this" and handed me a chart with photos of the dorsal fins belonging to the pod of whales we were about to view. wha? The kid working the counter at countless convenience stores we'd stopped at. His female co-worker, always the same young but burly, mullet hair.
And then it got really weird; they began to recognize ME (or it felt like they were recognizing me). A random, almost inperceivable nod, as if to acknowledge that we were both part of the same herd. A smile in my direction. The occasional 'how are you?' and not just from waitresses who are supposed to make you feel at home.
But NOWHERE along all those miles, did anyone ever ask us where we were from. I mean, I'm not dumb, if they could see my vehicle, they could see we were from by God Texas and maybe that was enough information for people. We actually met some people from Wichita Falls, Tx. but I didn't know them. They were just actual strangers.
I kept pointing out these people to my sister who mostly ignored my excitement and actually began to mock me. "Oh my god, look at the face on this box of little debbies, doesn't that look like someone we know?!!" I hate her so.
Well, finally, a friendly face I ACTUALLY know, said to me that when we begin to recognized all the players in our lives, reoccuring characters in this field of humanity, that we've achieved something great. The world has gotten that much smaller but it is now a cozy place. No matter where you go, find those characters and be familiar, be comforted. Wonderful notion, I thought, but maybe my eyes were just tired after driving for 39 hours. And she said, "maybe they were seeing better than ever before." Ok, too much caffeine? Or maybe, there are only a few thousand faces in the world and everyone of us fits into one of those molds. Our brains, constantly analyzing information from senses, quickly try and file them into one of those slots. The recognition factor is just the brain making a "match".
"Or maybe, it's a flaw in the MATRIX," my sister said. I do hate her.
But somewhere along this trip, I began to notice something unusual; there were faces I could swear I'd seen before. So familiar were these faces that I was often tempted to just go up to them and say "hey, wow, I KNOW you!" I found myself staring at them intensely, like a serial killer, studying their bone structure and mannerisms for ANY confirmation to my suspicion.
There was a man I saw somewhere near Death Valley who I know once delivered a truck to my store. Possible? Yes...but the odds of meeting him in some random rest stop in line for the pisser is just too absurd. Then it happened again, only this time it was a server at a KFC where we stopped to lunch. The Golden Gate Bridge at 8 o'clock in the morning, offered us fog and a flock of pro-bicyclists making ready for what apparently was a daily or atleast weekly routine. Among the 30 or so men and women, there was one guy I could swear had been my neighbor. The lady at the toll booth. The tour guide on whale watching day came over to me out of a hundred or so of her captive audience members, says to me "you look like you wanted to see this" and handed me a chart with photos of the dorsal fins belonging to the pod of whales we were about to view. wha? The kid working the counter at countless convenience stores we'd stopped at. His female co-worker, always the same young but burly, mullet hair.
And then it got really weird; they began to recognize ME (or it felt like they were recognizing me). A random, almost inperceivable nod, as if to acknowledge that we were both part of the same herd. A smile in my direction. The occasional 'how are you?' and not just from waitresses who are supposed to make you feel at home.
But NOWHERE along all those miles, did anyone ever ask us where we were from. I mean, I'm not dumb, if they could see my vehicle, they could see we were from by God Texas and maybe that was enough information for people. We actually met some people from Wichita Falls, Tx. but I didn't know them. They were just actual strangers.
I kept pointing out these people to my sister who mostly ignored my excitement and actually began to mock me. "Oh my god, look at the face on this box of little debbies, doesn't that look like someone we know?!!" I hate her so.
Well, finally, a friendly face I ACTUALLY know, said to me that when we begin to recognized all the players in our lives, reoccuring characters in this field of humanity, that we've achieved something great. The world has gotten that much smaller but it is now a cozy place. No matter where you go, find those characters and be familiar, be comforted. Wonderful notion, I thought, but maybe my eyes were just tired after driving for 39 hours. And she said, "maybe they were seeing better than ever before." Ok, too much caffeine? Or maybe, there are only a few thousand faces in the world and everyone of us fits into one of those molds. Our brains, constantly analyzing information from senses, quickly try and file them into one of those slots. The recognition factor is just the brain making a "match".
"Or maybe, it's a flaw in the MATRIX," my sister said. I do hate her.
posted by Robbb at 6:57 AM
4 Comments:
I blame Myspace.
everyone wants to be an original but even god created us in "his image"...where's the imagination...where's the creativity...goddamn office worker thats what he was.
I mistake the two of you bald fellows for the other all the time, so you may be on to something, mister man.
what's odd is that i've been thinking about this odd phenomenon...phenomena? anyway, granted it came to me a little later than your revelation, i didn't read this until today which is when i thought about it.
i was thinking about how people say that everyone has a twin. sometimes i have people come up to me and say, "aren't you ______?" or "i swear i saw your twin the other day!!" it's eerie. someone is walking around with my face, my mannerisms,...i wish they could walk around with my problems and drama...perhaps they are.
ps your sister's pretty chill...at least, the way i remember her...which is as a munchkin from the Wizard of Oz...the one that stretches and yawns out of a giant flower.
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