I have decided to freehand this post. Sure, I have a few thousand other projects and documents which I can share that help expound on some of my experiences in the context of the culture of the United States. But have you ever noticed, that sometimes the stereotypes are useful?
I have two examples. These are fun examples because I'm not actually always stoic and highly educated and going on about social issues and changing the world. I have fun doing it, too.
There is a man who does this kind of thinking every day, his name is Cody he raps as Sadistik, and this is one of his songs: Sadistik - "The Exception to Everything"
Buy his albums!
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Crazy 8's.
Okay, so it was my birthday and my friend, his name will be Lance today, is sometimes a very impulsive man and I just love enabling that part of his personality. Lance is the star of many stories actually. Anyhow he had been working until well after eleven on a Tuesday night and had been doing homework shortly before I arrived to pick him up at 11:55. We spent the hour driving to the casino talking about our mutual friends and about synchronicity and mindfulness as they apply in the world in so many useful ways. I asked him as we entered the casino, to pay attention to people and his surroundings. He did so very well actually as a matter of fact the first half hour we spent there was just talking to one of the cashiers about this or that. She taught us a recipe for making caramel out of condensed milk with a dutch oven. This skill will make us like gods at any camp site. Anyhow so learning this was just a matter of taking the time to listen, and be aware. After awhile we had managed to corrupt the slot machines at the casino so much they would no longer pay us any money, and the machines which exchange vouchers for cash broke, after they dispensed our winnings. To the blackjack tables, we thought.
I spent some time trying to pick the brain of a young dark haired bisexual woman who was also appparently practicing awareness at the black jack table, she had come from vegas and she had sworn off gambling. The odd thing about her was, no matter what I did, I ended up being nice to her. I was in the playing position ahead of her and every time I asked for a card, I would lose and she would win, and every time I would not ask for a card, I would lose and she would win. We decided to 'migrate' to another table something which I had mentioned because it seemed the young woman was worried that both lance and I would want to use drugs, and I was trying to indicate that we're "all natural" and a "migratory flock". The stereotypes which the woman applied were in our favor as I am sure she was interested in the game, the two of us, and also our card dealer. But she was incorrect.
Later we moved along with our dealer to another card table, at which point I had an inspiration. I doubled down on a hard 13 and I was going to manifest myself an 8. The next card was to be an 8 and I was sure of it. Although the play worked out I ended up with a 19 to the dealer's 20. I should mention I told the dealer that I am "a little crazy.". What happened next was astonishing. On my last play of the game, I was dealt two 8's, which Lance helped me split. Then I was dealt another 8, which Lance helped me split. Finally a fourth 8 comes out, which amazed even Lance. Following the fourth and final split, two more 8's came into play on two of the cards which were split.
As the dealer called the pit boss and began exclaiming shenannigans, she had never seen this before, the moniker occurred to me "crazy 8's". I am after all a little crazy and I wanted an 8, but here I was with six of them in the same play, in four games. Lance and I broke even that turn because the dealer ended up with a 20 again, but she is sure to remember the stereotype behind, crazy 8's. This is an instance where, the thought patterns associated with the stereotype were helping to shape the experience and not necessarily taking from it. Just the association crazy with 8, will be something we all remember for some time.
Liberation theorists never tell you that sometimes, stereotypes are fun.
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The Festivus Get-Down.
Lance and I and all of our friends decided to go out for the festivus at a local gentleman's club, our deliberations about mindfulness and the importance of being in the moment continued. Somehow synchronistically Lance had dressed as a santa, complete with a red santa hat and red thermal clothes, I ended up dressed as an elf. I was in my Stolen Babies concert shirt with long sleeves and a bright green t-shirt over it, my wool vest and a green hat. I also had my green entropy talisman which my brother had given me for my birthday. Lance and I were astonishingly sexy. The trouble was, we had expectations, I needed to make this a better situation.
Stereotypes are great in underworld clubs because you can use stereotypes from underworld movies. If you want to you can look at some of the dancers and staff as different types of underworld creatures, the sexy werewolf for example never approached me but spent the entire night trying to pick off all of my friends. It should be noted that the werewolf was the only girl I really found incredibly attractive and interesting.
The situation at hand, required dancing. Lance was in such a way that things began to appear a little too much from the underworld and our energy had been drained to the point where we needed to make some more. What else is there to do as an elf in an underworld club besides work a little magic and dance? I started to boogey down, to the club music, in the after hours club. I knew Lance wouldn't be able to resist for long. Soon santa and his elf were getting the get down in the after hours club as though no other person in the club heard the music, a crowd began to form, numbers were exchanged and the underworld shadows began to become weaker.
I love the stereotypes of the underworld because I of course, am a hybrid. I have this impossible cardiovascular health that I probably got from a broken heart so long ago. This happened during a set of complex relationship issues between a wonderful blonde werewolf, and her french Canadian best friend; Majandra was a fairly strong vampire and we were in Canada. There of course are no real werewolves or vampires or hybrids, but they're such lovely monster stereotypes that it can be liberating to apply them because they're not realistic and because they're fun. I danced for about an hour, exhausted everyone around me, and made one girl jealous. My brother and I were convinced there was some kind of exotic dancer warfare going on around our little troupe of strong men, and somehow every girl ended up with a phone number from, one of the other girls, that we had been given. It was a night of mischief and mayhem that will not soon be forgotten, because santa and his elves can boogey away the boogeyman.
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As you can see, escape from stereotypes is not always the best option, if you are awake and aware of our culture, you can have a lot of fun getting down in the minds of the people.
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