For day 43, I talked to my hand in public.
This challenge really played up the crazy. I walked around a nature preserve having a conversation with my hand while strangers passed me by.
To paint a picture, I had googly eyes attached to my hand. Like a puppeteer, I spoke out of the side of my mouth and flapped my thumb and fingers to create the illusion that my hand was talking. I’d answer in my my normal voice, while my hand’s voice had a bit of an affect.
During the challenge, hand and I spoke about politics, our sins, and dietary preferences as we passed by strangers.
I felt pretty weird doing this. But the weirdness subsided as I pushed on with the conversation until it became my new normal.
My family joined me on the trip to the nature preserve. Even though they knew what I was doing, it was uncomfortable to do the challenge with them watching me. After all, strangers come and go. But family is there to stay and judge you forever.
Through out the challenge, people looked at me. I could tell they didn’t know what to think. Was I crazy? Or being funny? I wasn’t giving them any overt clues either way.
This made me wonder, is there a legal limit to how silly you can be in public? I’d like to find out.
There were a good number of people at the nature preserve but mostly children. The children weren’t very judgmental. It would be interesting to try this challenge in a different setting.
I tried to film the challenge but it was a bit of a fail, but I still got some nice moments.
What I Learned
I felt really exposed and vulnerable at first. Self conscious.
My insecurities were so visceral in this challenge. I could really feel how much I cared what others think about me. But I’m not sure why I care. Why do I care what these strangers think?
But as I kept going, I got more and more comfortable. And while people did look, they were polite enough not to look too much. Thank you, people!
This was a great challenge that I can repeat easily on the go.