Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)
Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Have You Ever Noticed.. #1

Have you ever noticed that a strange thing happens when you come to an escalator that has stopped working? You get a strange sensation, as though it's taking a while for your brain to compute. Your eyes find it hard to focus on the steps that you are so used to seeing moving. Now they are still you don't know what to make of it. You temporarily forget how to walk, and have to consciously get your feet to move. When you do get them working-- left, right, left, right-- it feels like you have big robot boots on, or are walking through sand. Strange

4 comments:

Jalopy Macfurrland said...

Yes! That is a moment when reality contradicts the best of our expectations of what should be or actually is happening. I think it is happenening all the time, it just isn't in our face like a stopped escalator. For example, I walk by this beautiful tree in front of our house all the time and could care less to appreciate it for what God meant/means it to be. Sometimes though, when the light and sadly more significantly my mood, is just right, I am very well touched by it and than inevitably think of Him. The source of all reality.

Jalopy Macfurrland said...

Yes! That is a moment when reality contradicts the best of our expectations of what should be or actually is happening. I think it is happenening all the time, it just isn't in our face like a stopped escalator. For example, I walk by this beautiful tree in front of our house all the time and could care less to appreciate it for what God meant/means it to be. Sometimes though, when the light and sadly more significantly my mood, is just right, I am very well touched by it and than inevitably think of Him. The source of all reality.

trish said...

I totally had that experience this evening at Martin Place station. I could tell the escalator wasn't moving, yet I was convinced, that somehow it still was. My body was swaying, the room was spinning, the walls felt like they were closing in on me, I had to concentrate super, super hard not to trip up the steps (normally I just try super hard because I'm so clumsy I'm always tripping on/up/over/against something). Wierd.

Ben McLaughlin said...

jp-- Thanks for your thoughts mate. I like the way you think, you always manage to make me think about things in a new light. You are right, it comes down to reality vs. what we think SHOULD be happening.

Trish-- cool that the experience was fresh in your mind when you read this. It's probably a good thing that this experience is limited to escalators. Imagine the chaos if it spread to other things? What if foot paths sometimes started to slide away beneath you? What if water sometimes flowed upwards from the drain through the air and into the tap? Our lives would be a shambles.