I think about my accumulated piles of things all the time. It's why I panic when the CVS cashier tries to put my tube of toothpaste into a plastic bag, thereby adding to the gigantic, hideous pile of all the plastic bags I've used in my life. No! God, no. Please; no bag.
Or the fantasy about gathering people who have one particular thing in common, and watching them try to figure out what it is. Anybody with me on that?
I'm feeling the need for a survey (wait a second -- do you ever feel the need for a survey?). Here is (page 1 of) a survey I conducted at a conference several years ago. I left it on the registration desk for two days and people quietly filled it in when they spotted it. Does this same surveying impulse sometimes overtake you?
Question 1: Do you have a question in your head (perhaps every week or so) that goes like this: Is there anyone else in the world who has ever this exact load of groceries? (e.g., an eggplant, goat cheese, five pounds of cashews, toothpicks, rubber gloves, and a sunflower?) An acceptable variation: has anyone else ever carried this exact load of items? (The image below documents the moment when I told Ting: "Let me get the camera. I think this may be the first time ever in the course of human history that someone has carried this very combination of things: a French press, a wilted daikon radish, and some mud from the Dead Sea.")
Question 2. If you do have these thoughts, does it ever lead to the following:
If this is the very first time this has happened, what an amazing moment this is!
OR
If it has happened before: What if those people met? Would they ever figure it out? (e.g., "Stop right there! I once carried a French press, a wilted daikon radish, and a container of mud from the Dead Sea!")
Do you then imagine their delight?
Love the picture of Ting. My answer is no to Question One. And I guess my survey stops there.
ReplyDeleteYes, beautiful photograph of Ting......and chiming in with a no once again. You're starting to make me curious though about the particular idiosyncratic thoughts of my own quirky brain :-).
ReplyDeleteOF COURSE I think about this. All the time. Even more than the piles. People all with the same birthday? A very quick gathering. People with the same license plate numbers but from different states? A little longer, but the fact that they are all from different states would be a big clue. I think my partner with the wilted daikon, the french press, and the dead sea mud would be scratching our heads for a LONG time.
ReplyDeleteA little note here - my partner wouldn't be scratching our heads. We would each be scratching our own respective heads. : )
DeleteYes. The other scene is a different thing all together.
DeleteNo, I NEVER wear jeans in my practice. That would be a different person who is NOT a Nurse.
ReplyDelete:-)
p.s. that is a funny, phallic thing sticking out of pretty Ting's bag!
DeleteThat's not the survey question you're supposed to answer, Marilyn! :-o
DeleteNo, Paula, I don't ask myself that particular question about the contents of another's grocery bag. I guess I just accept the random chaos theory of grocery shopping. Marketers, I bet, would be very interested in your survey!
DeleteI do, however, glance at someone else's cart or their purchases sliding down the conveyer belt and wonder if they're planning a party and whom it might be for and what the occasion is.
:-)
Wow, so it's an inherited thing!
ReplyDeleteIt would appear to be so. I wonder what would happen if we put all the families that have this trait into a room together.
ReplyDelete