Familiar Strangers

You know those people you pass everyday, but don't know? Those are your familiar strangers. It may be that you know the kind of coffee they get. Or it might be that you they wear blue only on Thursdays. Or it might be that lady with the curly hair that you pass everyday. You don't know them. You know almost nothing about them, and yet you see and remember their face. They have no importance in your life, but at the same time you wonder "where are they going? what is on their to-do list?"

Everyday when I go to work, I pass multiple people. Some are people who I will never see again. Children, adults, cats. But lately there have been three people who I consistently see on a daily basis. There is the lady that walks her cat and slowly admires the rising sun. There is the lady who is wearing pastel pink sweats (yes, everyday) and begins her walk in Sachar Park. Then, there is the guy at the crosswalk on his bike. Because the crosswalk lights stay on red for so long, I usually see him. He regulates my time. If I don't see him, I need to sprint to work. If I see he hasn't crossed to my side yet, I know that I have a lot of time left.

It's amazing that eventhough you don't know anything about these people and you only see them for a few seconds a day, that your brain is able to remember and recognize these faces. There are a million people in the world. The fact that this three pound muscle is able to remember is amazing.

In the kindergarten, a specialist comes in for Music. She is blind. I think that it is good for the older kids to know that there is a working and functional blind adult in their vicinity. While she only comes in once a week and stays in each classroom for about half an hour, the kids are still able to recognize her voice (which, by the way, is decent. She can actually sing which makes a difference since none of the rest of us can). As a blind person in the community, she does not have familiar faces, but rather familiar voices. But all of us have mixed up another's voice. Half the time when I talk to my family, I have to say it's me and not my sister. I have had conversations though where people thought I was my sister. Some times vision is the most helpful despite that the visually impaired have better tuned hearing than the seeing.

So, while familiar strangers are not very important in our lives, it makes life easier. If the cashier knows you always give correct change and you are short by a few cents (or agurot) they will let it slide. Or if the familiar stranger spills something on you or steps on your foot by accident, it makes it easier to forgive them because you know that it's not the norm.

But then after awhile it gets awkward. There comes a point when you recognize them and they recognize you. Do you say hi? Or just go along like normal?