Today what struck me about the folks standing at the streetcar stop seemed at first glance rather trivial. And maybe even at second thought. But I will explain and you will see where it led me and how, just maybe, it is something to ponder.
The first thing I noticed - and I did a small sampling of maybe 30 random male and female travelers - is that roughly 90% of the women were wearing either black or grey. Some had a bit of white perhaps, or beige but it was pretty much black and grey. And yet, it is summer, it is the time when I would have thought we would wear bright and cheerful colours. Not so, obviously.
The other 10% of the women wore colour. Really bright colours: limes, corals, reds being most predominant. Now the men also were very conservative (I realise that I am making a value judgement here about the meaning of colours). The men wore, almost without exception, black trousers and white or perhaps blue, shirts. No ties.
Why do the people I see dress like this? Is it a requirement of their work? If so, why? Is it that they need to look part of the crowd; not be seen to be different? Not stand out? I, of course, have no idea, but my gut tells me it has something to do with both conformity and vulnerability. Vulnerability? More in a minute.
The other thing I have noticed is that both men and women are invariably carrying things although occasionally I will see a man who carries nothing and then can stand with his hands in his pockets. But what are people carrying? They are carrying: bags, knapsacks, purses (both men and women)and also coffee and a phone. This is new to me - I don't recall it being the case when I last lived 'in the world'. So why are people carrying all this and what is in the bags?
I do not know, needless to say...except it seems to me that one reason we (I do too) carry bags with stuff in them, is so that I/we have everything we may need for the day ahead. So we won't be caught short. So we can be in control. So we won't be vulnerable.
Is that possible?
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