We Are The Stranger

I get a kind of seasonal jet lag in late October and early November. Last night, as I ever so slowly drifted off, I thought back on all the people I’ve known. 99.9 % of them, maybe more, I’ll never see again. You’re in the same boat, dear reader. Think about it. For me? All the kids I went to school with? Lost to the winds of time. I know two at this point, one of them I know I’ll see again. They many people I’ve worked with? Dozens and dozens of them, some of them really great? They live all over the place. The unknown number of people I’ve tattooed over thirty-plus years on three continents? I liked so many of them, but they’re gone, off living their lives. I wouldn’t even recognize most of them anymore, they wouldn’t know me either. I know people right now that I won’t know in two years, and I’ve met people this year I won’t even remember at all soon enough. By the time you’re 50 (I’m 51) many of your relatives are dead. In this life, I won’t run into any of my few remaining relations again, simply nothing in common. Supposedly, we know 100 people. Social media artificially inflates this, but the real number is somewhere around 100. The size of the hunter-gatherer pod we were designed to be a part of. If that’s true, and deep down we all know it is, then only one of them really matters, and that person isn’t on the list. It’s The Stranger.

As late-night revelations go, that isn’t bad. I know a guy who’s brusque to the point of being rude to waiters and waitresses. The amount of jizz, spit, hair, ass juice, and crotch rub he’s eaten as a result is unthinkable. The Stranger can be a huge bummer if fucked with and will readily Fight Club your food. The Stranger can charge you more and deliver shitty service across the board, at the store, in a cab, for car repairs, essentially at all points of interaction. The Stranger is inescapably everywhere. At the same time, I know people who are so honest and true and good-hearted that The Stranger is able to sense this and often comes to their aid. Your relationship with The Stranger is what you make of it. We all get to decide. Fell right asleep after that. I’ve always gotten along well with strangers.