Seriously. I see
weird people every day. I don't mean just weird, either. I mean
weird. I've been
pondering this and I think I've come to an
Official Rationalization. Here we go...
- I live in the projects (in Chicago). Really. I live two blocks from the infamous Cabrini Green, and living near the biggest failed housing project ever really does something for the local social atmosphere. I live on the very edge of the projects, mind you, and that edge is opposite the edge of a wealthier part of town as well (in so many ways...). So I'm kind of trapped in this half-low-income half-yupped-out housing project. Of course, the low-income half is federally funded, and the yupped-half pays a higher price for their apartments (heh, units). I mean half only by number, not by physical space.
Having severely failed projects nearby means people from those projects are around; they work at the grocery stores and drive the buses, they wander the streets, they drive to work, they ask if anyone has a transfer for the bus they don't need, they are normal, they are not normal. The not normal people are the ones I see. They appear as couples YELLING at each other in the street; they appear as people walking very fast while looking straight up; they appear as late-night "business"folk, asking if you are looking for a "good time". Higher area concentration due to area-related social situations.
- Take the number of people in Taylorville (an average dirtbag town with some seriously fucked-up local politics). Now, from that random sample (12,000) find the number of freaks. I would say about 2,000. That's a bunch of freaks for a 3 mile wide town.
I never saw many freaks in Taylorville; most that I did see were my best friends. You see, being a freak in Taylorville is much easier than being a freak in Chicago. Why? The degree of freakiness is more intense when spread among more people. Compared to the "normal" people of Taylorville, I am totally weird. However, when I moved to Chicago, I moved much farther down the weird scale towards "normal." This brings up to...
...the Normal/Freak ratio. Let's say there is a set ratio of normal to freaky people in any place that can be basically determined by population (I'm generalizing here; note the word rationalization). Ok. Population of "normal" Taylorville over estimated number of freaks determined solely by me: 6/1. Yeah. I don't remember the population of Chicago (rationalization). Let me go check...Population of Chicago in 1990 was 3,000,000. Ok, let's leave it at that. Chicago's number of freaks...500,000. Woo.
Chicago's pretty big. But I do live in a hot area. Who knows?
- When it comes to the celestial handing out of luck, I was four MONTHS late. I got the leftovers that Willy Nelson forgot.
--sigh--