About three days ago, I saw one human, one cartoon dog, and one gorilla walk out the Art Museum on State street togather. They had a frisbee and were clearly headed for the law quad. Their appearance was both bizarre and strangely casual.
One was dressed in the usual uniform that almost everyone in the world wears (frayed shorts, logo t-shirt, flip flops). The second guy was dressed in a gorilla costume. The third member of their party was dressed up as a yellow-spotted cartoon dog. They were chatting about something as they went to play frisbee. The normal-dressed one was clearly having a little trouble hearing the other two through their masks.
What was particularly strange about the costumed frisbeeists was how normally they were walking. Usually, if someone is in public wearing a costume, they work for some Chuck-E-Cheesesque or Disneyish corporation. And if that's not the case, then they are a zany person who likes the attention of dancing around in a costume.
But these guys were walking at a normal pace. No jumping around, no antics. Nothin. And now that I think of it, it's probably harder to behave normally in a cartoon dog suit than it is to behave like a cartoon dog. But this guy was doing it.
When they came up to cross South U. in order to get over to the Law Quad, a group of black kids on the corner started hollarin' at them. Their general sentiment was, "Holy shit! A dog!" They didn't really mock him, or his gorilla friend, so much as marvel at him. The way you do when someone wears a costume in public.
And the yellow dog turned his body to them in a way that said, "C'mon. You really gonna give me some shit about this." As much as person whose entire body is hidden under yellow-with-black-polka-dots felt can have an expression, this guy seemed wearied and resigned. As though he were some opressed minority that was no longer outraged or sad about being singled out, just exasperated.
The dog walked off into the law quad shaking his head, and the gorilla and the normal person patted him on the back. "It's ok man," they might have been saying. "Don't let those jerks get to you."
I imagine that the yellow dog just shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't care. There will always be ignorant people. It's fine." And they played frisbee all day until the sun went down. It was probably really fun.
