After the homo floresiensis talk last night (which I will post about in detail later today -- it was very exciting), a bunch of us were at a bar, when a complete stranger came up to our table.
"Excuse me," he said, "I don't know anyone in Brisbane and I'm feeling very lonely, so I wondered if I could join your group for a few drinks."
The unexpected thing is, he turned out to be (apparently) a completely normal guy.* I was expecting extreme oddness, if not mental illness, judging by his willingness to go up to complete strangers and tell them he was lonely, which is something I could never do in a million years.
So I couldn't help feeling a kind of admiration towards that attitude. Wouldn't the world be a simpler place if none of us were scared to tell people around us what we needed and ask for their help?
_________
* Apart from the fact that he comes from a town called "1770". (The linked website spells the name out, but the guy we met claims the locals always write it in numerals.)
Friday, July 14, 2006
Inhibitions, he has none
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7 Comments:
I did that once, actually--when I first moved to San Francisco, I asked someone to have coffee with me just because I was new and lonely. She ended up being very nice and we hung out a few times. I'd forgotten all about that...I do think it would make things simpler if people did more of that. :)
Wow, I really admire that. I wish that I could be like that. More often than not, I am shy and hope that people wander up to me to talk.
I've never seen 1770 written out in words, or even referred to just by name. It's always "town of 1770".
That was incredibly brave of him. I would never be able to do that. Mainly because, even if I did, I'd spend the whole time thinking the people were thinking I was a freak for doing it, so it wouldn't make me feel less lonely at all.
Me too, Lucy. I can ALMOST get my head around asking random strangers if they minded me joining their table (I would never do it, but I can imagine 'other versions' of me who could, i.e. if I were more outgoing, etc), but I can't imagine actually saying explicitly, "I'm feeling really lonely" to a group of strangers. It's especially not something I'd expect to hear from a middle-aged man (for whatever stereotypical reasons).
'Town of 1770' sounds slightly less bizarre.
Luckybuzz, I admire your braveness too!
And Katie, even that sounds braver (or more outgoing?) than me! I usually sit in a corner and hope that people WON'T wander up to me to talk!
Wow. That's really cool. I wish we could all go up to people and say that. I wish I could do that right now.
My husband does stuff like that - when we were first dating it used to kind of freak me out when h'd just start talking to random people out of the blue. Like, in grocery store line-ups or at the movie theatre.
He once went to Florida for a work conference and stayed an extra few days by himself. Apparently he spent the whole time talking to and hanging out with strangers. Says he had a great time!
An attitude like that would almost certainly make the world a better place.
Talk to me! (You know you want to!)