Monday, June 11, 2007

Mesmerized By Green

It is humorous to me that people have such a lack of ability to drive in the mornings. Either they are in absolutely no hurry at all, unlike myself, or they just don’t care. I find myself driving down a road with numerous stoplights. Everyone knows that when you are in a hurry that the stoplights are entirely too short, and this is precisely how I usually find them. This morning I noticed something different, though. I watched the lights turn green and the people at the front of the lines just sat there, presumably mesmerized by the green light. I can just picture them eyes transfixed, mouth agape, saying, “Look at the pretty colors.” It takes the yellow light to break the tracker beam and release this phantom hold it has on them. Then they gun it through the intersection. Of course the person behind them guns it through the red so they don’t have to wait another light cycle, and we have just experienced two people get through a green light.

So, since there were 18 people in front of me and everyone seems to fall prey to the same phenomenon, eight cycles later I finally make it through the light. I then get to the next light and we start it all over again. Green light. “Look at the pretty colors.” Yellow light. Gun it. Red light. Gun it. Repeat.