the hierarchy of social snubbing

so there's this little leprechaun-like crazy man who takes out the trash at school. he is quite wee, and stooped, and bent like a C. he has a swirly frown face (eduard munch style) and walks like a hobbit. he only makes strange grunts around people and mutters to himself as he drags the cart down the hall; you can't decipher his speech, but you can tell he's giving someone one hell of an ass-whooping, only in absentia.
nobody ever moves out of his way unless it's in fear; nobody ever thanks him for taking the trash out, or says 'excuse me' when they bump into him or his cart. except me. it's like he doesn't exist at all, except for the faint sneer you read on people who catch him in their peripheral gaze.

one time i spilled some coffee in the break room, and the little man was upon that puddle like a flash, helping me clean it up in silence, and scurrying off wordlessly as i thanked him. i was reading a journal in the alcove one afternoon at dusk, and i heard his muttering off down the corridor and then, a light was suddenly turned on above my head so i could read in the ever-nearing night.

it's true, when i see this little dude, i sometimes think to myself, "heh, he totally has a wang. weird." the same way most of you do when you see someone with a grotesque physical characteristic - whoa, those people like, do it. that midget has a midget penis. whoa. but, still, you probably acknowledge their existence when it becomes appropriate to do so, and engage in exchange of proscribed social normalities.

this morning when i was driving, i was behind a guy in a grey honda who kept jerking from one boundary of his lane to the other. i thought maybe he was having a seizure until i saw both his arms up about his head. combing, and brushing, and preening, and primping, and mussing. not for a moment; for 4 straight miles on 290; i clocked it. and as i pulled even with him, trying to think of a gesture that would convey, using only one hand, "stop playing with your fucking hair you moron and please just drive so we don't all die on the way to work," i saw that he had a buzzcut.

i mean, what the fuck? and i bet everybody spoke to him at work today, said hello, and excuse me, and thank you.

society should re-assess.