Return of Memoryfest - Day 16/31
Jan. 15th, 2007 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bironic16. Middle School (?)
We were driving back from Lens Crafters; I'd just gotten a new pair of glasses and was admiring the way the leaves on the trees looked so sharp and defined from the rear passenger seat. As we approached the T-shaped intersection between two residential streets on the way to our house, where the road we were on dead-ended and we needed to make a right turn, I shifted my gaze to the white picket fence along the perpendicular street and thought about how easy it would be to just keep going straight, drive right through the fence and across the lawn of the house there, maybe even into the house. I wondered what prevented someone from doing that, from just not turning the car.
That’s the first time I remember conceiving of the human instinct of self-preservation.
We were driving back from Lens Crafters; I'd just gotten a new pair of glasses and was admiring the way the leaves on the trees looked so sharp and defined from the rear passenger seat. As we approached the T-shaped intersection between two residential streets on the way to our house, where the road we were on dead-ended and we needed to make a right turn, I shifted my gaze to the white picket fence along the perpendicular street and thought about how easy it would be to just keep going straight, drive right through the fence and across the lawn of the house there, maybe even into the house. I wondered what prevented someone from doing that, from just not turning the car.
That’s the first time I remember conceiving of the human instinct of self-preservation.
no subject
Date: Jan. 16th, 2007 04:29 am (UTC)I remember thinking this is what it must be like to be a television and have the "focus" and "sharpness" knobs turned way up.
This was what it was like to see for the first time.
no subject
Date: Jan. 16th, 2007 05:51 am (UTC)Reposted for formatting. Sigh.
no subject
Date: Jan. 16th, 2007 06:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Jan. 16th, 2007 12:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Jan. 16th, 2007 03:24 pm (UTC)Anyway, I can still pass an eye test for driving with total ease, so I'm not overly worried about it just yet.
no subject
Date: Jan. 17th, 2007 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Jan. 16th, 2007 07:21 am (UTC)Recently, though, I thought I might have to get my eyes checked, because my monitor at work seemed blurry - but then one of my colleagues walked into my office, looked at my screen and said, "What the hell is wrong with your monitor?"
no subject
Date: Jan. 16th, 2007 08:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Jan. 16th, 2007 12:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Jan. 16th, 2007 08:48 am (UTC)Anyway. Memory. Hm. Okay, this has nothing to do with anything, but I remembered it the other day and decided it would need to be shared before the month was over, and since your memory isn't triggering anything specific, I'll use it today. :D
I must've been somewhere between ten or twelve when this happened. I was in church and I guess I had a sore throat or something because I was sitting out of choir. My church was very small. The choir consisted of me, my cousin, the pastor, the pastor's wife, the organist, my godmom, a lady named Doris and Doris's nephew Emil. On a good week there would be maybe twice that many people in the congregation. Sometimes the choir was bigger than the congregation. Anyway, as I recall, it was actually a little "busy" this particular week. I was sitting near the back of the group with my grandmother. When it was time for a few moments of silent prayer, I saw gramma moving out of the corner of my eye so I looked over at her to see what she was up to. She was picking fuzz balls off her sweater -- you know how they pill up sometimes? -- and sort of rolling them between her fingers. She noticed me looking, held up one of the fuzz balls and told me, rather loudly (especially considering it was supposed to be a moment of silence), "Not a booger." ... ... Needless to say, a majority of the people there heard her, and I had to excuse myself to go outside and crack the hell up. Oh, gramma. ♥
no subject
Date: Jan. 16th, 2007 03:18 pm (UTC)I remember sitting on a rough stone wall on the Greek island of Hydra, looking out at the slate-grey waves and down at the water frothing between the rocks. I was fourteen, and I had a wild, almost overpowering urge to jump - or rather just to let myself overbalance and fall. I didn't understand it. I didn't want to die, and I was terrified at the idea of my body breaking on those rocks, but I had to climb off the wall because I was so afraid I would do it without meaning or wanting to.
no subject
Date: Jan. 16th, 2007 03:56 pm (UTC)