Eyes Upon Me

A thing happened the other day when I was leaving the library as it closed. I paused just outside in the shade to untangle the earbuds of my shuffle. I did so and began to leave. As I went to press play, a voice called out to me. I turned, and saw a presumably high school-aged girl addressing me. She had said, "I like your moustache!" I don't hear that very often from anyone, and it is especially rare to hear it from anyone of the female gender. She went on to compliment my blue eyes with equal enthusiasm. I thanked her, reluctantly put my sunglasses on and left.

Given the girl's age the compliments felt like a bag full of money covered in security ink, but I was flattered nonetheless. Of greater interest was that she or anyone had noticed me at all. It might seem surprising for an admittedly distinctive-looking man who sometimes performs in front of modestly-sized crowds to say so, but I don't often think about the fact that people would notice me. I'm well enough accustomed to friends spotting me on the street. A lot of my friends live around me, I'm out there walking around quite a bit, and as I said, I am easy enough to pick out of a group.

Adding to the implausibility of my reaction is my interest in people-watching, and it must sound ridiculous that the watcher would ever be surprised that someone was watching him. It seems so to me. Still I'm the last person to expect that strangers would pay any attention to me. When other people say that I tend not to be credulous, particularly in the face of such overwhelming evidence to the contrary, but you can believe those words from me.

The manner in which I have cultivated my looks was definitely not predicated on getting attention. That again may smack of dishonesty as it would if it came from one of those pop stars who trades more in presentation than in music. As I said before though, you can believe me; I've been of the mind that if I haven't got substance then I have nothing. All that is what I have thought, but I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong. I've got something going from a looks perspective that people notice even among a subset of the population that I always have thought was just teaming with guys like me, and some of those people like it. I guess I'd better start exploiting that.