Occasionally I run across someone who is horrified by my apparent strangeness. I'm not really aware of it that much myself. I don't think I'm so strange. "I'm really an oddball. One of a kind!" I hear that sort of thing so often from so many people that I figure it must put me somewhere in the fat part of the bell curve of humanity. It actually seems a measure of degree of self-absorption to go around declaring one's uniqueness. Still, on the path of my life I have occasionally come across someone who is struck and horrified by my apparent strangeness. Or, I don't know what they see exactly, but there has been the occasional snicker and teasing. Rather mean-spirited too. Of course when I was younger -- way younger; grade school younger -- I tended to react with theatrical audacity. "Yeah I'm skinny, but you're stupid, so it all balances out." Or, "Yeah, I know, all my friends hate my f***in' guts. My mother says I'm a dirtball. Thanks for reminding me though, because I keep forgetting. Can you put it in writing for me?"

But of course with age I've wearied and mellowed. Now when it does happen I'm momentarily bemused. If pressed, I might offer a comment like, "Yeah, I seem kind of odd at first. But once you get to know me you'll see I'm really as boring and stupid as most other people." But enough about me.