Strange Things

by | Jun 1, 2019 | Human Thinking and Behavior | 0 comments

I watched a Netflix series called Stranger Things. It features a mysterious underground monster, nefarious government officials, and appealing teens.

I had my own strange experience in a park in an Armidale (NSW) park a few weeks ago.

I went to the park after work to hit a ball against a tennis practice wall. I saw and smelled spray-paint fumes on the far side of the wall. I looked there and saw a guy spray-painting the wall in an artistic way. I said hello. His spray-painting did not strike me as strange because I had heard that the local shire allowed some young individuals to do that.

On the near side I saw three guys on the left side of the wall. I ignored them and started hitting the ball against the near-side wall.

Then I heard music coming from the direction of the three guys. I looked over at them and noticed that one was dressed in a long black robe, wore silky black gloves, and had a silky black hood that covered all of his head except his face.

I stopped hitting the ball.

The man in black looked to be about 40 years old. He danced, about as well as I do, and he made big facial movements, bigger than I have ever made. He may have been lip synching.

One of the other guys video-recorded the performance. The third fellow eventually put up a big green screen on the wall behind the man in black, blocking the colorful graffiti on the near side of the wall.

I tried not to gawk as I practiced swinging my racquet without hitting the ball. I had a feeling that the ping-ping of my hitting a ball would not add much of value to the recording.

It occurred to me that a lot of artistic expression was happening at the same time involving the tennis wall. What a town! What a species we humans are!

If I were a nosier or more outgoing person, I would have interrupted the trio and asked what they were doing. Instead, I took my ball and racquet and left behind a mystery.

Did I witness a religious ritual? A student project? Or something stranger?

 

[Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash]

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