Where Nobody Knows Me!

(The Daily Prompt – Stranger In A Strange Land)
By Joseph E Rathjen
July 17, 2013

There’s a big reason I like to go someplace where I’ve never been before and where nobody knows me, and here it is – IT’S BECAUSE NOBODY KNOWS ME! So in essence, I don’t have to worry about someone asking me all the annoying questions that I usually get asked when I go somewhere – WHERE EVERYBODY KNOWS ME!

You know what I mean, right? Think about it. Let’s say you find yourself in a city or town about 500-miles away from where you usually live for whatever reason. It could be a business trip, you’re visiting relatives or you’re on a real vacation. You decide to take a walk by yourself and do a little window shopping in the town square. You want to remain by yourself and appear “invisible” from everyone. It’s not because you are anti-social, it’s because you just don’t feel like talking with anyone about anything at all.

You just want to be alone, period, but you don’t want to feel alone. You want to have the feeling that there are people around you, but since they don’t know you they’ll probably leave you alone – or so you hope.

Sometimes being a “stranger in a strange land” is a new and exciting thing. It gives you the rare opportunity to reinvent yourself even if it’s just for a day or a couple of hours. If a complete stranger  walks up to you and says hello, you can say hello back and tell them your name is John or Joe or Dave or whatever name you choose. They won’t know you’re lying because they don’t know anything about you at all.

You can tell them you are a CEO of a plastics company in Idaho or a physicist who works for NASA and is in charge of studying “Black Holes” in space. The black hole story would work well for me, because there is actually a scientist named Rathjen who studies black holes in space. So if they google me later at least my story is partly true.  You can even walk into an art gallery and make-believe you’re interested in purchasing the most expensive masterpiece on display. Don’t worry about not knowing anything about art, because most of the artists out there today don’t know anything about it either.

The point I’m trying to make is that sometimes, even if it’s just for a little while, it can feel good to be out of your zone, and into a world where you are a complete stranger. A world where nobody knows anything about you, the places you’ve been to, the things you’ve done and the things you are hoping to do. A world where there is no judgement, and no analysis.

A place where you can just be you.

Here are some of my blogger friends views on this topic:

1. Daily Prompt: Stranger in a Strange Land | flow of my soul
2. Daily Prompt: Strange in a Strange Land « Mama Bear Musings
3. Kashmir Art and Crafts | njoy every moment
4. A Stranger in a strange land… | The Rider
5. A Texan’s Safari in Ukraine. | luvsiesous
6. Daily Prompt Wednesday July 17 2013 | it writes itself
7. I like to take a seat and let it all sink in. | thoughtsofrkh
8. It Can’t Fit the Frame: Romans 11:33 | The Photo Faith Challenge
9. Stranger in a stranger land: living in America. | thewordpressghost
10. Fish Guts (short fiction) | The Jittery Goat
11. Stranger in a Strange Land | Geek Ergo Sum
12. Stranger in a strange land | Nanuschka’s Blog
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48. Mira Morenas! – Stranger(s) in a Strange Land | M’me Solitaire
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51. The trip before the trip | I Didn’t Just Wake Up This Morning with a Craving
52. Daily Prompt: New | New Love’s Lyrics | peeksi.com
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