One of the unexpected things about writing on Substack is the comments.
Sometimes people say:
"Your article made me cry."
"I really related to this."
"I've never thought about it that way before."
Those words always make me happy.
But I've noticed that the things that change us are often much smaller.
A casual remark.
A joke.
A sentence someone wasn't even trying to make important.
One day, someone I interacted with left a comment:
"I looked at the people you interact with and honestly thought you were probably one of those weird group-account people. Then I talked to you and realized you're actually normal."
I laughed when I read it.
I wasn't sure if it was an insult or a compliment.
But for some reason, I couldn't forget it.
On social media, we often see who someone talks to before we see who they are.
We notice their circle.
Their reactions.
The people around them.
And before we know it, we've already decided what kind of person they must be.
I'm guilty of it too.
Sometimes I think I'm judging a person, when really I'm judging the people standing next to them.
Maybe that's why that comment stayed with me.
Because it was honest.
Because it revealed how someone had seen me before we ever really spoke.
Most people would laugh and move on.
I didn't.
I've always had a habit of collecting stray words.
A joke someone makes.
An offhand observation.
A truth that slips out accidentally.
Sometimes those become seeds.
They grow into ideas.
Into habits.
Into stories.
So I did something ridiculous.
I started calling us a "gang."
Half as a joke.
Half as a tribute to the comment that started it.
Since then, whenever conversations get lively, I occasionally say:
"Why not join our gang? We even have a number-one ranked member."
Of course, there is no gang.
No membership test.
No dues.
No meetings.
No organizational structure whatsoever.
Most of the time we're just making jokes and entertaining each other.
Yet somehow people play along.
"Can I join?"
"Who's ranked number one?"
"That gang actually sounds kind of comfortable."
And before long, a single comment has become a running joke that brings people closer together.
I've always remembered people's words.
Not just compliments.
The strange comments.
The awkward jokes.
The accidental truths.
The things people say without realizing they're revealing something about how they see the world.
Those are often the most interesting.
You don't have to accept every word someone gives you.
Some words deserve distance.
But occasionally a sentence lingers.
It makes you pause.
It makes you wonder.
It shows you a version of yourself you hadn't considered.
And sometimes, that's enough to change something.
After all, not everyone would hear:
"I thought you were one of those gang people, but you're actually normal."
and decide to start a gang.
The truth is, people rarely reveal themselves when they intend to.
It usually happens by accident.
A passing comment.
A harmless joke.
A few words left in a comment section.
That's where the real things slip out.
That's where we glimpse how someone sees the world.
And maybe that's why I treasure those moments.
Praise is nice.
Jokes are nice.
Even slightly rude observations can be useful.
Because every now and then they remind us:
"There are ways of being seen that I never noticed."
And those discoveries quietly expand our world.
Perhaps comment sections are small public squares where we shape each other more than we realize.
And somewhere today, someone will casually say something they didn't think mattered.
Maybe it will disappear.
Or maybe it will become someone's next step.
The difference is usually decided by the person who picks it up.
And perhaps the least normal person in this entire story is the one who created this atmosphere in the first place.
Anyway, the gang with the number-one ranked member remains surprisingly peaceful.
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