Living in the Seconds
This is Steven Petrick Posting:
We are probably all aware of being caught in traffic. Of missing a traffic light because the person ahead of us was driving slower than that the speed limit. Or stopped while the light was yellow. Or was gradually slowing while the light was green in case it turned yellow and then accelerated through the yellow but leaving you to sit waiting for the light to change back to green.
Take a moment to consider how even this small delay may have irrevocably changed your life and you will never know.
It is not the obvious things (the delay made you late for a job interview for example), but the larger context. Because you were delayed a few seconds, you missed a green light, consequently you were not a mile further down the road when the drunk crossed two lanes of traffic and hit a light pole. Had you been there, the light pole would have been spared, but you would have been killed by the side door crash. Instead, you drove past the wreck.
That at least has some obviousness to it (you see the wreck, but might not make the connection that it could have been you that was hit). The alternative might be that the drunk swung into your lane of traffic, and had you been there he would have hit you, but he regained control and returned to his own lane. Now you will never know about this "could have been".
Of course the obverse is also true. The fact that you were delayed is what caused you to be hit, but since you made the light you are not there when the drunk swerves into your lane.
There are things constantly moving around the peripheries of our lives. Most escape our conscious attention because they have no direct connection. You might see the drunk's car unsteady in the opposite lane of traffic as it goes by, but it did not affect you and you do not realize that mere chance (not making that traffic light) has acted in your favor.
Life is full of stories of people who missed catastrophic events (the sailing of the Titanic) for small mundane reasons. And people who had seeming good fortune (earning a berth on the Titanic) for the same reasons.
Consider that in World War I a young Corporal left a bunker for a few moments, and the bunker was hit by a shell killing everyone inside. How might history have been different Corporal Hitler had not left the bunker at that moment?
We call it "fate".
And fate is in the seconds in which we live. A few seconds delay, a few seconds gain, can result in a lifetime of consequences.
We are probably all aware of being caught in traffic. Of missing a traffic light because the person ahead of us was driving slower than that the speed limit. Or stopped while the light was yellow. Or was gradually slowing while the light was green in case it turned yellow and then accelerated through the yellow but leaving you to sit waiting for the light to change back to green.
Take a moment to consider how even this small delay may have irrevocably changed your life and you will never know.
It is not the obvious things (the delay made you late for a job interview for example), but the larger context. Because you were delayed a few seconds, you missed a green light, consequently you were not a mile further down the road when the drunk crossed two lanes of traffic and hit a light pole. Had you been there, the light pole would have been spared, but you would have been killed by the side door crash. Instead, you drove past the wreck.
That at least has some obviousness to it (you see the wreck, but might not make the connection that it could have been you that was hit). The alternative might be that the drunk swung into your lane of traffic, and had you been there he would have hit you, but he regained control and returned to his own lane. Now you will never know about this "could have been".
Of course the obverse is also true. The fact that you were delayed is what caused you to be hit, but since you made the light you are not there when the drunk swerves into your lane.
There are things constantly moving around the peripheries of our lives. Most escape our conscious attention because they have no direct connection. You might see the drunk's car unsteady in the opposite lane of traffic as it goes by, but it did not affect you and you do not realize that mere chance (not making that traffic light) has acted in your favor.
Life is full of stories of people who missed catastrophic events (the sailing of the Titanic) for small mundane reasons. And people who had seeming good fortune (earning a berth on the Titanic) for the same reasons.
Consider that in World War I a young Corporal left a bunker for a few moments, and the bunker was hit by a shell killing everyone inside. How might history have been different Corporal Hitler had not left the bunker at that moment?
We call it "fate".
And fate is in the seconds in which we live. A few seconds delay, a few seconds gain, can result in a lifetime of consequences.
posted by Federation Commander at 4:13 PM
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