Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Slow motion

There are so many things which can slow time down, anticipation of something you want, boredom, and the ultimate slower of time, and I'm preventable accident about to happen.
I have, in the past few weeks, become acutely aware of this slowing effect. In the mornings I make coffee. Does the machine take five minutes or 50? It's all the same to me. In June we missed our connecting flight and spent some extra time in the Munich airport. Were we there eight hours or eight days? It must have been eight hours. We only ate one lunch.
And then there was the day when I was hit by a car, yes, hit it's a funny thing how you can know something without knowing you know it. I knew, I discovered, in the time that slowed down to a crawl and then almost to nothing, that being hit by a car is at two stage process. First you are hit and then you are runover. 
I am going to be run over, I thought as the bumper hit my legs. I am going to be run over, I thought as I flew through the air. I am going to be run over I thought as I lay on the pavement. I waited, and I waited, and I waited. 
And I will never know if I waited 20 seconds, or 20 hours, or 20 years. I will never know because I was not run over. I was only hit by a car. Thank heavens for that! by a car.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Laughter is a tranquilizer without side affects

Ask a toddler with a scab on his knee
And he will tell you in action rather than word
How a belly laugh can eat race the hurts of the world