I was on the way to temple when...

I saw some deviance! We passed by a store with a near empty parking lot, and a man was outside walking to his car. The man was almost to his car when he suddenly stopped. And performed cartwheels for the remainder of the distance. Then, after he reached the door of his car and was about to get in, he seemed to change his mind and proceeded to do what appeared to be the beginnings of a sun salutation, raising his arms high above his head and opening his chest to the sky. Now, I understand that exercising on your own is perfectly normal and quite a few yoga videos take place outside, but I was nevertheless surprised to see this man stretch himself out in the middle a parking lot. Because the man was acting differently from how people in America are expected to behave, this moment is an example of deviance. Deviant behavior describes acting outside of social norms, which are different for every culture. I never really thought about the multitude of actions that could be deviant in our culture, but I could definitely spot deviant behavior if I were to see it. With that being said, it took me about two seconds to recognize that doing cartwheels in a parking lot is deviant.