Becoming an object

Today we visited two of the beautiful gardens of Suzhou, the Humble Administrator's Garden and the Lion Grove Garden. They merit a posting of their own, and they'll get one. But tonight's story is about what happened there.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a clown or a statue and have people stand by you and have their picture taken? That happened to us several times today. We are apparently different enough -- older, larger, whatever -- so that people want to have their picture taken standing with us, even with their arms around us. It's an interesting feeling and certainly is not offensive, but it leaves you feeling a little strange and wondering what they must see that makes them want the photo.

So your homework for tonight is to think about this: what might make a stranger want to have his/her/their photo taken with you? Please send your answer in a SASE and we'll award an appropriate prize to the winner. Neatness counts... ;^}