What is Daniel's deal?
It’s pleasant to be with your friends. Share good memories. Play games. Enjoy each others company. Yes, life as a part of a friendship is pleasant.
But sometimes, sometimes… when you come across someone as quirky as Daniel, your idea of what pleasant times are, are completely dis-emboweled and turned inside out. Now, I’m not saying that times with him are not enjoyable. In-fact, some of the craziest things I’ve done in the past couple years have been with Daniel. But the awkwardness is sometimes so present you could take a cheese grater to it.
About Daniel
Friendly. Kind. Monotone. (But in an exciting sort of way) Interested. Un-interested. Provocative. Careless. Careful.
He’s an interesting cat to be sure. Now to be fare, he IS an academic chemist, and we all know how SOME academics can be. But all in all, he’s what’s described above.
So…
Where is awkward in the list? Could it be that someone that exudes awkwardness does so only through another social mode of deliverance? Is it possible that one can create awkwardness, but not themselves actually BE awkward? While I previously supposed it was impossible, Daniel has proven that even when we think something not, it’s very possible it can be.
So he accomplishes the task brilliantly by baiting the tell, disrupting the flow, and going for the kill. Not malicious, just how he does. For instance…
In private…
Daniel: Mendel, what do you think of so-and-so? (baiting the tell)
Mendel: so-and-so is blah blah blah.
Later that day at a friend’s house…
Daniel interrupting: No, so Mendel, why don’t you tell so-and-so about so-and-so (disrupting the flow)
Mendel: Well ho hum ho hum.
Daniel: Well I think what you actually said is this that and the other. (going for the kill)
In this case it’s conceivable that the situation is not pre-meditated, but rather a chance convergence of two pieces of information that happen to fit perfectly together.
If you don’t know Daniel, it’s possible you have no idea what I’m talking about, however the interaction exemplified is sometimes the exclusive mode of social interaction with him…
If you’ve followed this far, you might ask, why wouldn’t it be upsetting to be caught in a situation like this?
Well the truth lies in the logic of it all. Because, it’s not that anything he’s told is untrue… in-fact to the contrary. Most everything that comes out of Daniel’s mouth is brutally honest. So true indeed, that you can’t help but agree with and yet be repulsed by the fact that his only fault is that he’s unable to regulate the output of his thoughts.
