Tuesday, October 31, 2006

MoRandum Thoughts

The Point of No Return / Moment of Reckoning

There is a small fraction of a second between the time you do something and the time your actions affect you. You know the exact second when you give the car door a good shove and you realize that the only keys are inside, then the door latches. What goes through your head at that exact moment? When you know you’re committed to something and you are totally powerless to change the outcome, and you don’t like the outcome. Another good example of this is when you hurt yourself. I have done this several times and have learned to laugh at myself, because after all people getting hurt is really funny.

This weekend I was taking a ladder down that was leaned up against the house for putting some lights up. Pulled the ladder away from the house and reached up to pull the lever that released the extension. Now why I pulled the lever at that exact moment in time I may never know, maybe it was a slight miscalculation of the force of gravity, maybe I thought I could support the weight of the ladder with one hand. Honestly I have no idea what I was thinking.
When I heard the latch ‘Click’ Time stopped just for a moment and I could hear myself thinking. “You know that was really a dumb thing to do and this is going to hurt, a Lot.” I’m sure I would have continued this conversation but the ladder struck me on the head. Now this took me into a whole new train of thought that went something like this. Ouch, now that hurt, I am probably going to bleed, a lot. Set the ladder back against something so it doesn’t fall again. Then I started Dripping. “Oh yea this might be really bad.

So I set the ladder down, as any sane person would, knelt down in the grass, and attempted to reason with a 9 year old about going to get her mother for assistance. The conversation went something like this. “Caity, go get your mother.” “Why?” “Because I need her.” “Why?” “Stop asking questions, and don’t look at me either” “Why not? OH MY!!!!” Fortunately her mother heard the loud thud and argument that ensued and appeared shortly to assist with stopping the blood flowing out of my forehead.

All of that story just because I was wondering. Does anyone else have these thoughts? Especially in that fraction of a second when you just know something is about to happen.