In an instant

In an instant I was no more than a couple of feet from another’s brush with death this afternoon. A passenger in a stationery car, in a traffic-jammed city, I was stunned by the speed with which another car came roaring out of the blue, wrenching a modern-day unicycle-form-of-transport (I don’t know what they’re called) out from under the feet of its rider – who, thankfully, was thrown in one direction whilst the whatever-it’s-called was pulled under the car. Screeching, anger, ashen faces, dozens of startled onlookers. In a tiny fraction of an instant it could have been catastrophically different. Shattered husbands, wives, children, parents, friends, gathered around the catastrophes of mere instants. Blame-apportionment at that stage becomes merely academic.

For pity’s sake, andante, andante, andante. Slow down. Nothing’s ever worth that kind of push and shove and risk and rush. Nothing.