The Look

Human experience is vast. I cannot relate to anyone. I can relate to everyone. I am a stranger. I enter interstate I-65 every day and head south to get to work. I live in a ‘not so great’ part of town. There are shifty ladies looking through my car window as I drive by them on my way home at night. There’s always someone who needs some change at the gas station. Having no teeth seems to be normal. There are large 18-wheel trucks passing by on the highway every minute of every day. I feel homeless.

With such thoughts on my mind I get up from my table at Bongo Java and I’m walking towards the stairs that lead off the porch and towards my car when I get the look. I can’t interpret this look. I’ve never been able to as long as been alive despite the fact that I’ve gotten this look a lot. It’s neither a look of obvious interest nor is it one of distaste. It’s quite possible that a woman could give me this look and in the next moment a man could. It’s asexual in nature. It’s mildly inquisitive but not necessarily inviting. It’s obvious that ‘something’ is going through the mind of the looker. That’s the look.

I’m sort of minding my own business, as I tend to do, walking off the porch and if I hadn’t turned my head in that moment I wouldn’t have seen it. This 20-something couple is chatting away over coffees and the girl is clearly staring at me; giving me the look.

Of course my immediate response to this is, “oh yeah..she digs me.”. This response doesn’t mean that I am an ego-centric male person. This is the normal male response. Men are generally resilient creatures and mostly we like ourselves quite a bit so when we catch someone giving us attention we assume they are admiring us. Actually I am merely attempting to be humorous. I was an awkward teenager so most of my high school years were spent interpreting the look negatively. Everyone was an awkward teenager.

Nevertheless I am prone to further analyze these types of situations so later in my car I start to wonder what it all means; Do people in general get this look? Does this happen with great frequency? If I were someone else would I be more or less likely to act upon these situations? Should I talk to these “lookers”? Am I inept at reading social cues? Am I picking up on social cues that everyone else misses?