If on a winter's day you board the wrong train...
April 9 2011, 7:58 AM
Distracted, weary, or more, you sink into your seat on the train that
shuffles - or shoots - off towards your destination. Except it isn't. Maybe you sense something different. Maybe it is something
obvious - a sign - that you are heading in the wrong direction. You're alert now. Perhaps panicing. What can you do? You race through your
options. If you are lucky, you can hop off at the next stop and scramble
onto the right train and get to your destination, a bit late perhaps (maybe
you missed out on a few items from the beginning of the event you were
going to) but none the worse for it. Maybe, though, you are stuck. There's no getting off, and there's no easy
way back. Maybe the next stop is the last stop, and there's no train going
back, not for a long time. Or you have no fare to get back. You are doomed. But no. You always have fare these days: plastic is in your pocket; you are
good. You can get off at the next stop, and in the meantime, you'll enjoy
the ride. Except after awhile the ride isn't enjoyable and you now want to
be going in the right direction. But you can't. You are frustrated now. You beat yourself because of your stupidity,
fatigue, laziness. Why didn't you pay more attention! Why are you such a
moron! Then you notice: the train has free wifi. You have you computer thingy in
your bag! You can connect! You can do things! Maybe work. Maybe find out
how to get back on the right track. Maybe complain about your predicament
to your online friends! What a relief. Less and less you worry about which direction you are going. It's all just
Browning motion in some ways, and moving away from one place is moving to
another. It's all relative. Connected, on the web, everyone is with
everyone at the same time. There is no wrong train because you are always
where you need to be. On the Internet, space isn't relative: time is. And
right now, you have plenty of time. (H/t to Italo Calvino and Albert Einstein)
-----------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld.
shuffles - or shoots - off towards your destination. Except it isn't. Maybe you sense something different. Maybe it is something
obvious - a sign - that you are heading in the wrong direction. You're alert now. Perhaps panicing. What can you do? You race through your
options. If you are lucky, you can hop off at the next stop and scramble
onto the right train and get to your destination, a bit late perhaps (maybe
you missed out on a few items from the beginning of the event you were
going to) but none the worse for it. Maybe, though, you are stuck. There's no getting off, and there's no easy
way back. Maybe the next stop is the last stop, and there's no train going
back, not for a long time. Or you have no fare to get back. You are doomed. But no. You always have fare these days: plastic is in your pocket; you are
good. You can get off at the next stop, and in the meantime, you'll enjoy
the ride. Except after awhile the ride isn't enjoyable and you now want to
be going in the right direction. But you can't. You are frustrated now. You beat yourself because of your stupidity,
fatigue, laziness. Why didn't you pay more attention! Why are you such a
moron! Then you notice: the train has free wifi. You have you computer thingy in
your bag! You can connect! You can do things! Maybe work. Maybe find out
how to get back on the right track. Maybe complain about your predicament
to your online friends! What a relief. Less and less you worry about which direction you are going. It's all just
Browning motion in some ways, and moving away from one place is moving to
another. It's all relative. Connected, on the web, everyone is with
everyone at the same time. There is no wrong train because you are always
where you need to be. On the Internet, space isn't relative: time is. And
right now, you have plenty of time. (H/t to Italo Calvino and Albert Einstein)
-----------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld.