I think the Social Experiment

Some people get it. Some people I think, feel threatened.

I made capes; have ridden bicycles a few times with a select group of people and the capes were involved. But, like any good non-normative behavior there is a spectrum of reaction.

To give an example: On bringing home some capes by myself last night, I had left them at a friend's house, I ran into my neighbor who gives a growly "What's with the capes?" My answer was honest an incomplete, I left them across town and had to carry them back.

His disgruntled reaction though, was not surprising. I've found that you have a 3 point spectrum of reaction, typically. At one end is this unsettled anger, disapproving notion. At the other end is bemused enjoyment. In the middle is indifference.

I've often thought that the reaction to something like capes on a bicycle actually tells more about the person, than the cape wearer. Judging the rider as an eccentric, or irresponsible, or unhinged could be done, but it could also be wildly inaccurate.

I think you might be surprised about who can be convinced into riding around with a cape on.

But, angry people especially, it seems have made the mistake of showing their anger at a harmless thing, and exposed themselves as having deeper issues.

I can give two strange corollaries to this.

It's as if you got angry when you saw a cute picture of an animal.

or

It's the same reaction I got with my huge handlebars of yesterday; Either thumbs up or the middle finger.

Imagine you're sitting by a window eating breakfast. You look out the window. You eat breakfast. You sip some coffee, leisurely. The people who walk by the window look in. Some look away, quickly. Some smile. Some scowl and make a face that says, "How dare you intrude on me with your gaze." Of course the irony is that these sad scowlers are the ones peering into your house, and their rage upon being detected feels strangely misplaced.

An oberseravable fact.

But in some ways the counter to the anger for me, has been a mellowing. A smile, a friendly attitude; These can isolate a pile of rage and bones and skin on a little island of anger and problems. Not that these people don't need to address these problems, or that I don't care; but you can't solve the problems of the guy who screams incomprehensibly out his driver's side window.

You can give those who will take them, capes.