more ponderings from #randomconversationswithstrangers…
so there’s this guy who lives on a boat nearby to my current parkup. He’s a bit of a character and always friendly. He asked me the first morning, as I was having coffee on my busstep, if I paddled (he was getting a kayak ready to go over to his boat which is moored in the river). I said no, but only coz I don’t have a boat.
Anyway, there’s this other guy who walks his dogs early morning. He’s been quite chatty too, only in a different way, a more ‘British’ way. He asked me yesterday if I’d met the guy with the boat. “He’s an odd fellow” he said, “seems to live on the boat out there. I’m not sure how he acquired it…”.
That really struck me. If someone lives in a house no one wonders how they ‘acquired’ that house. But if you live on a boat someone thinks they have the right to question such a thing? It’s a funny kind of judgement that only seems to come from suspicion of otherness. He lives on a boat therefore he’s dodgy. If he looked the same way but lived in a house would he be deemed less dodgy? I wonder if this old British dude thinks I’m dodgy too. Maybe I am, by default. Funny thing to consider about yourself, really: “Am I dodgy?”… #thoughtfortheday
[first posted on facebook, August 11th 2015]
Selected comments:
Artfully dodgy [Steven, Perth]
Dodgy as hell, in the best kind of way! [Rebecca, Adelaide Hills]
Yeah you’re definitely dodgy! [Siobhan, UK]
Definitely dodgy dear, and subversive too. :) [Ruff, UK]
We’re all agreed – so dodgy [Sarah, Wollongong]