There are several ways I walk into a room full of people, most of whom I do not know, on some social occasion.
1. "These people are all ignoring me." That is, they are actively not thinking about me. I am such a focus that they have to work at ignoring me.
2. "This is a room full of competent grown ups and I don't fit." Suddenly I have no social skills for such grown-ups. I am a child or a student in a room full of smart, competent people, better read, more interesting than I could ever be.
3. "Everyone is thinking about me." This comes especially when I am in my clergy cloths.
The reality is that many people have these and other like thoughts when they enter this same occasion. Just look at how people down the alcohol, or maybe they did some of that and a pill, drug, before coming in. To avoid giving my crazy mind any space for weirdness, I general go up to someone right away and introduce myself. It is amazing how many people forget to tell me their name. I ask about them, and do not focus on myself or why I am there. It is amazing how many people I meet this way who are having social skill issues at that very moment. Would that there were an event in which everyone said what they were thinking when they entered such a room.
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There is such a room and it is usually called group therapy. Sometimes when there is a tragedy or a terrific event everybody talks how they think and fell about it. What about there is a room full of people and they are doing their thing and I will come in and maybe get to do my thing with them. Or not.
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