Time, Choice and Consequences

Being a musician presents the opportunity to meet people from many walks of life. I've chatted with millionaires, politicians, people who are penny-less, dreamers, actors, famous people, and people who are looking to escape their reality for an evening. Along the way I've met extraordinary people and extraordinarily average people, but each person has a story that intrigues me. Maybe that is why I perform to begin with: to share stories.

Many years ago, I met a girl (who's name I can not recall) who fancied herself a poet, a writer. This is not unusual, in fact, a lot of people come up to me and want me to put music to their words. (I rarely do, as my songs are a byproduct of my own existence.) I remember chatting with her briefly, and sadly, remember very little about her beyond one thing: She gave me a book.

The paperback book she gave me was called Einstein's Dreams. (Read the Wiki or buy it for as little as one cent at Amazon dot com. One cent, wow.) The book is an interesting read on how time can shape our perception of reality by telling a story that changes based on how time is perceived. This review said it best:

• Within each world live people who make decisions and choices based on how they perceive time.  For example, the people living in a world about to run out of time, seize all the moments they can and abandon restraint and, it seems, bitterness and ambition.  They dance naked through the fountains, fulfill fantasies that were unrequited, and express their love for family and friends before the final moment.

Yesterday, I thought of this book again, due to the fact a friend of mine was in a car accident. She's ok, largely due to some reactive driving that allowed the back driver's side door to take the blow. The car was totaled, an empty child's car seat was severely damaged. 

Time. In an instant, a moment of time can change lives.

A fraction of time could have changed this event:

• My friend could have avoided the accident if she were running late, or got an early start, or been in a different lane.
  
• Someone else may have been hit instead
  
• The red light runner could have continued on with no implications

A while back, I wrote an entry on choices. I'm fascinated on how choices can alter lives: both minor, cumulative choices to major (turn key) decisions that have life altering impact.  

A driver chose to drive without a valid license (it had been revoked). She chose to be yacking on her cell phone and speed through a red light. She also ignored road workers who were there to witness the event. Her choices led to an unnecessary car accident, which changed my friend's day, and lead to a few traffic citations (but no arrest) for the careless driver. (I can't help thinking if I were driving with a revoked license, I'd be the best damn driver on the road....) 

Yesterday's event happens every day. Unless we know someone involved, the report becomes lost in the rest of our day's news (if we stumble upon the news at all).

There is a human element I can not ignore. A moment of time intersected with a series of choices which had an impact (pun intended) on someone I know, and indirectly on me. For this moment in time, I'm thinking about my own choices and realizing how precious each moment in life can be...and how quickly things have the potential to change.

This is not an uncommon reaction at all. From time to time, we all take inventory of our own lives when something triggers this same emotion. What baffles me, is how soon we forget and are easily distracted by the other things that life brings us. It is a shame it takes a dramatic moment in time to remind us how precious every moment is.

I'll try to be lighter next time...