Friday, December 12, 2008

Escalators

The stairway moves.  It can be a surreal and upsetting experience for a pedestrian to be conveyed up and down without expending any energy, so it is understandable that when those little metal teeth appear and suddenly suck up the stairs you were just riding that you may stop.  The floor does not move? Hmm.  The stairs but not the floor.  Processed.  Now is the time to walk forward to allow the next escalatron off.  No?  It is preferable to assess one's options.  What is the rush? 

The next passive body arrives and roused by the realization that here is another person situated in the exact spot where my body will need to be in less than thirteen seconds, begins to contort. The next passive body is suddenly and unpleasantly awakened from mechanical confluence. Stomach is sucked in, shoulders angled and hands flattened as if already in apology for touching a stranger in public.  Eek by without the slightest touch or plow forward into the immobile brute ahead.  Learn him a lesson.  Eek by is the choice, attended by a look of disgust and a slight tsking sound.     

1 comment:

  1. ... you 'said something interesting," indeed. And the post on eye contact. And The History of Luminous Motion. Thanks.

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