Drivers Notice Infinitesimal Wobbliness

I've had intermittent problems with vertigo (if you get dizzy when your head is in certain positions, you likely have benign paroxysmal positional vertigo and should read this for an easy - well, not easy - fix). I also spent a year mostly off my feet due to a series of crippling foot injuries.

Between these two issues, there've been stretches when I've walked out to my mailbox feeling a bit teetery. And my house is near the bottom of a big hill which speeds cars to murderous velocity. And there's no shoulder. A driver could thwack my mailbox with a short stick held out the window. Fun!

Of course, some percentage of cars fucklessly whiz right by me as I grab my mail. Most, however, give me some room. And when I'm teetery, drivers give me lots of room. They seem to know. The more teetery I am, the more they divert. All of which makes some sense.

But it carries over to a subtle extreme. If I merely feel a touch teetery, but don't actually wobble, I can still feel, via Vulcan mind lock, non-asshole drivers registering this. And their reaction proves it. Same if I feel slightly old-guy-stiff but my motions are solid. Small though it is, it has a measurable effect on drivers.

Here's where it gets weird: If I feel fit, but make a deliberate effort to seem particularly confident to avoid affecting drivers, that gets picked up as well. Even my mental process - my framing - affects drivers.

It's a very fine, very subtle dynamic, only noticeable after paying attention (I’m a guy who pays attention) to 4000 daily mail-getting experiments! There is spooky tectonic stuff going on here, ala dormitory women synchronizing periods.

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I've spent 14 years on this Slog explaining all the ways we humans are dumb and are "Missing It". Well, this right here is the thing we're smart at. This is what we absolutely nail.

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I meditated a lot as a kid. Like a lot a lot. And I was good at it. A savant. It changed me in fundamental ways, and at first I failed to cloak my blitheness - my orbital view of the amusing foibles of this dramatic performance we're occupied with here. I made no effort to feign eagerness for the myriad chintzy rewards and fear of the feeble punishments, which gave me a serious case of Strange Playground Kid Vibe (SPKV).

It persisted even when I stopped meditating and defiantly plunged back into giving a grippy crap about missing a highway exit or having a flight canceled or eating a lousy cupcake or not getting the job/prize/girl. I never lost the SPKV. Because they Know, and the Knowing is subtle and deeply tuned-in.

If I'm so much as thinking about any of this - retaining any smidge of self-awareness - even that mental process/framing affects external perceptions. Even that affects drivers!