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			A little less than a happy high




			02:38 pm October 9th, 2002

komos


	Consider yourself told
	Oh, almost forgot... On the way to my meeting today, I passed a man who was unclean, unshaven, unhappy, and quite possibly unhinged. As I approached, he stopped his grumbling in the general direction of his shoes, looked me dead in the eye and asked, "Am I invisible?" Since I didn’t have the time to enter into a long discussion over the metaphysical ramifications of what he was asking (after all, in the grand scheme of things, we all are, at least on some level. In some traditions, it is even desirable to recognize your intangibility as it is a reminder of the impermanence of the self...), I opted for the simplest answer that came to me. "Nope. I can see you just fine." "Well ok then," he replied. "Make sure you tell everyone else that." So anyway, there's a guy at the end of Boylston who, while not exactly pleasant to look upon, is decidedly not invisible (in the strictest sense.) Even if you don't hand him your spare change or have the time to stop and chat, give a nod in his direction to let him know that you can at least see him.

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			Thread started by Psalm 23:5

	From: c_m_i	Date: October 9th, 2002 11:29 am (UTC)		(Link)

In my high school days of being the supervillain The Neferious Doctor Squid, my RoboSquid outfit had a cloaking device built into it. It was a little flap that I could lift, revealing a sign that read "Shut Your Eyes."

Luckily, RetroBoy, Squid's arch-foe, was blindingly stupid.

Good times, good times.

-ia.

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	From: komos	Date: October 9th, 2002 11:45 am (UTC)		(Link)

I remember a time when the boffer community didn't have a magic system beyond, "If you can convince someone else that it's happening, it does." It became a kind of improvisational performance art where making people laugh hard enough got them to bend to the reality that you were selling them.

A sign that read "shut your eyes" would probably have worked in that system, as would calling upon the powers of the great "Googily Moogily" and doing a little dance.

Falling down a lot helped, too.

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			Thread started by GuitarCries

	From: guitarcries	Date: October 10th, 2002 02:15 am (UTC)		(Link)

Every time I leave Boston I have to drive through that intersection off of Mass. Ave., just past the hospital, that takes me onto I-93. There are always guys there selling roses or some other such nonsense that I never want to buy, nor would I open my window for them to begin with even if I did want to buy one. But I always at least look at them and shake my head, because it feels so foolish to just sit there in my car and pretend they're not there. I'm gather that a lot of people do that though, cos whenever I look at them they give me a big genuine smile.

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	From: komos	Date: October 10th, 2002 12:05 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	A million stories in the naked city

Heh. I've gone from joking about this exchange to thinking it's a really sad story and back again. I might have made his morning. Possibly not.

There are different ways we use to get by, I guess. It does seem like there's something important in all of this.

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	From: guitarcries	Date: October 10th, 2002 12:08 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Yeah, I think there is something important. Even if they're some annoying hobo on the street, they're a human still. Everyone wants to be acknowledged, to be understood, to be seen and loved. It doesn't matter who it is.

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