Skinny people and the café

Skinny people and the café .

 

Skinny people!
The hollow-cheeked, wide-eyed, pale-faced opposite of today's waddling, bloated majority.

Now I’m not talking about your regular sour-faced, humourless, soy-latte and skinny blueberry muffin ordering dieter. I’m talking about that rare species: the naturally slim person!

 

I say species, because look at them. They really do seem to be a different breed.

The majority of them are extremely sensitive, endowed with antennae permanently receptive to the most minute stimuli.

Being prone to over thinking things and not getting enough sleep, the majority of them seems to be hooked on caffeine. Eager to burn off the little fat that clings on to those finely built bones, caffeine conveniently speeds up their metabolism.

 

Poetic as they are, they appreciate the smaller things in life and like to cultivate their alternative image. If the words hipster, budding artist, tortured soul or misanthrope all spring into your mind at once upon beholding said specimen, they have done their job correctly.

Although the slim tend to keep to themselves, they are a very narcissistic breed. They adore projecting an air of difference and superiority onto others. Unlike their sturdier, louder peers, they tend to do this in a most peculiar manner: they gather in silence. Instead of retreating into some obscure room in the family manor, as inevitably happened in former times, the 21^st Century provides skinnies with an irresistible alternative: the café.

As if following the Pied Piper’s hypnotic call, inaudible to most normal people, they seek shelter from the busy world inside any café claiming to provide wifi.There, they proceed to do what they thrive at: being unsocial. After settling at a table full of screen-starers or even better, by the window, the laptop is produced and Mr or Mrs Slim has disconnected him or herself from the rest of the world for a good hour or two. Perhaps a glance at what slim, hip neighbour on the left is doing (downloading indie music, writing a philosophy paper) or another order (flat white) temporarily brings them in touch with their surroundings, but these things are beside the point. The main goal of the gathering, of course, is projecting one’s own coolness. And reassuring yourself of the fact that the others are of your kind.

Sitting in a café is like temporarily being part of a family; skinny modern man’s alternative to loud, primitive clans. But luckily, the concept of family has adapted itself to its modern interpretation and has become refreshingly versatile: café families last as long as you remain inside the café. Come back next time and the atmosphere, although comfortingly anonymous enough, is decidedly different. Of course, you have the regulars, but new additions are constantly being made. All adopting the unspoken rule of being busy and isolated.

Permanently single as they are, a Café is the perfect marriage for sensitive skinnies: no explanations required and no strings attached.