Once I saw a guy—just a normal dude, not working construction or anything; he was all alone, bundled up in the cold—holding a stop sign at an intersection where there was a light, like he was waiting to cross the street.
First, I wondered for what purpose he was holding that sign. I then imagined what I’d be doing with such a sign—a social experiment, maybe? Like, would people stop doing whatever they were doing if I was just like “HEY!” with my sign, but I’d not actually tell them to stop. I’d just then wave and say hi or some such.
However, then I wondered how I’d feel if someone did that to me, and was struck with how jarring I’d find that to be. We are all so very committed to our routines that the moment anyone does anything different or unexpected, it’s startling and feels unsafe, no matter how innocuous the act is. We don’t know what to do; it’s like a trick or a trap. We’re so unused to our senses being stimulated. We’re deep in the groove. It’s an unsettling thought.
Yet, if we couldn’t predict any aspect of our lives, we’d probably jump off the nearest cliff to free ourselves from the endless randomness. Of course, not even that might work.
Of course, life is already plenty random, but there are, mercifully, some constants. BUT (there are so many “buts” in this post) should there be less constants, or rather, would it be healthier if we relied on nothing and believed absolutely everything was a gamble, a risk, and treated it as such? Who can say?
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