Okay, this post has the possibility to be real deep but all I can think of now is tamales. Damn you!

Love this post. I haven't been here long enough to create many relationships like that, but there are people that I "watch" who send me into wild speculations about who and what they are.

Happy turkey day and all that.

And a little FYI there on my new blog space :)

Kim Phung! That restaurant fooled me into thinking that I like Vietnamese food.

makes me think of that bit in wim wenders' "wings of desire" where peter falk, playing himself, remarks ruefully on how bit-part actors on a set are called "extras" - "extra people," he murmurs ironically, as if it's a crazy yet telling notion.

when i see the word "peripheral" i think, perhaps unfortunately, almost immediately of peripherals in computer-speak - in other words, external attachments that serve an ancillary functional purpose, such as a printer. it's a little sad to think that i might be unconsciously thinking of the guys at the 7-11 as functional external attachments to my ego. i'm not saying you were saying that, i'm just following my own stream of consciousness.

but i do wonder about those guys. they have these scary looking military tattoos on their forearms - i want to ask what they mean but am afraid to. they fought in some pakistani or indian paramilitary force at one point, apparently. i suppose i could try and google it.

we have a friend down the street who is a guatemalan immigrant, who cleans offices for a living, including my wife's place of work. after getting over her shock that some lower-middle class white people actually wanted to be her friend, she immediately began to regale us with friendly advice such as "you really should be taking your daughter to church" and, to my wife, "why did you go away on that trip and leave your husband behind? that's selfish!" it surely is an education, sometimes, to bring "peripheral" people into one's line of sight. she thought we were nuts letting our dog inside the house, much less sleep with and - ugh! - KISS us!!! :LOL:

i guess when you make the connection to people who seem outside of your "zone", you find things out about the outlines of your own thinking. i am being forcibly reminded of this by having to work a night job as a cashier to make ends meet - now i'm a "peripheral person", and i wonder if people ever think about me when they leave the store.

Ah now here is your chance, teach the tamale house lady and your mailman how to blog and then you'll find out all about it.

You know, I hadn't thought about peripheral people in terms of class or ethnicity, but you might have a point there. Although, I don't know. I tend to stand on the periphery in several areas of my life. So peripheral people could very well be all of the homeschoolers I never talk to at park days, or the people in our office complex I avoid striking up a conversation with. Crazily enough, I actually feel more of a connection with the guys at the convenience store and the women at Tamale House than any of those people. And I do recall a time in my life when I was "the kinko's lady"

It's just an interesting concept. Yeah. I remember that scene in wings of desire well! It's a great scene...and I have recently been drawn back to that movie, so it's funny that you should mention that, r@d@r!