Wednesday, November 22, 2006

One minute you're minding your own business...

...and the next minute, POP! You've been hit by a car. At least that's something that I witnessed today. I have seen similar things before, and in this case it happened at an EXTREMELY low speed, so there were no apparent injuries.

Such an event is undoubtedly shocking to those involved, but as a mere bystander it's disarmingly banal. I mean you have a normal street scene running along just like any day. There's maybe a fraction of a second where you realize, "hey, that guy isn't stopping" and then it happens. And there is no great Hollywood score, there is no slo-mo, no replay. All you have is a normal street scene, except the victims legs fly out from under them, the victim comes down to earth in a painful looking fall and then (mercifully) gets up.

Nothing changes, just that one second where things appear disordered - at least according to our expectations for a street scene in the suburbs.
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