Having two jobs, I get the privilege of meeting a diverse range of people. The jobs couldn't be more different, nor could the people that I encounter, and today was no exception. I seemed to be a magnet for strange people approaching me.
First off, a guy in the street tries to convert me to some religion. No other mug stopped. The heads went down, eyes diverted, the shuffles became quicker. I however, blindly walked into the trap. As soon as I saw him I wanted to run. He wore a hat (which obviously makes him dodgy) and a long coat, and I just knew he was going to try and sell me something. Quite frankly, I was on my lunch break and really quite hungry, I didn't have time to talk to this odd ball.
Secondly, there I am stacking books in the library, and a man who I've never met before just comes and stands, less than a metre away from me and just stares. Uncomfortable with the situation, I ask him if I can help him but I get nothing, just a glazed expression. So I try to ignore him and carry on with my work and he starts smiling, then giggling, then waving ... I mean ... what the hell?
Then finally, another extremely odd man comes into the library. As soon as he comes in there's something not quite right about him. He looks shifty. He's holding some dirty carrier bag. He's got narrow eyes that flicker way too fast and he literally can't keep still, up and down like a yo-yo. As soon as I think he might have found something to occupy his clearly wired mind, in reading a paper, he springs up, strides towards me and says (far too loudly for a library environment I hasten to add) 'can you hold this', extending his carrier bag. Upon my confused expression, he follows it up with 'it's not a bomb, I need the toilet' ... Oh right ...
See, even before any of these people spoke I instantly thought 'these people are freaks' and would have avoided them at all costs but honestly, who knows what's normal? Maybe they're the normal ones and I'm odd. Who am I to judge?
As it happens the monk gave me a book. I'll probably never read it and his conversation was wasted as I have no intention of converting religions, but a nice gesture all the same. One thing he said struck me though: 'thank you for taking the time to stop'. He seemed genuinely grateful that I'd given him the chance to even explain his ideas, nobody else in the street seemed to. I found he wasn't weird, he was just different.
The second man turned out to be schizophrenic. He regularly come's into the library, has imaginary conversations with the photocopier and generally invades personal space. Before he left, he made a point of coming to the desk and telling me to 'have a nice day'. I found he wasn't weird, he was just different.
The third man, didn't have a bomb in his carrier bag, just a kettle. Okay not the conventional day to day items you carry around but again, he was completely harmless.
We're all guilty of it; judging other people by our own standards but time costs nothing, in that five minutes out of your day, you might meet some very interesting people, different, but interesting.
