The Scrambler (aka Life?)

I remember as a kid I went on a carnival ride which I utterly hated but loved at the same time. These carriages would spin and fly around erratically, each on a seemingly different axis, creating the illusion that you were about to crash into another carriage at very high speeds. Yet at the last possible minute you're flung into another completely different path. I loved how it was so erratic, unpredictable, and yet, in the end, we were all connected.

I often think back to that ride and as strange as it might sound, it reminds me of... life. How surprising, erratic, unpredictable it can be. How we're constantly flung into one path or another, into the lives of this person and that person, and then we're off again! Into another completely direction... You can never predict where you'll go next or where you'll end up or with who, but ultimately, we're all connected.

We're all connected, and there's a certain kind of rhythm to it all, a certain kind of rhythm we're all intuitively dancing along to.

I spent two hours this morning volunteering to act as a patient for the surgical registras (=residents) sitting their Part 1 clinical examination, and for five minutes I entered the life of that person sitting their exam, this future surgeon. I was flung into their path, then five minutes later flung right back out. S/he and I spoke, interacted, touched... and then they headed back in one direction and I headed back in another. Our lives intersected for those few minutes. And probably never will again.

It's funny how that happens -- and constantly happening, every day. The ride may slow down more as you approach some carriages compared to others -- your lives may intersect for longer -- but in the end, you're off again.

Is there really more to it than that? Will two carriages ever meet, crash, and subsequently continue on together? Would it ever... stop? Will it ever slow down, and not eventually fling you back out in another direction? Is it worth holding your breath in anticipation? Or should you just not bother, assuming it will sooner or later, and so acting accordingly? Is there really more to it than that? Is there relaly more to it than The Scrambler?

I'm not sure what my point is to all this... Just thinking, I guess. Procrastinating from my essay, I guess.

But then again, it doesn't really matter. LoL.

... Or does it?