Sunday, July 31, 2016
At the Tea Party
Cake makes you big and tea makes you small but if you have very little experience it can grossly exaggerate the effects. I see the chess board and the cards and the lady who angers if her personal treats are eaten. Then I fall into a rabbit hole, but I am from the rabbit hole. I am late, I dislike time. I am the rabbit? No not that rabbit, maybe we share some distant ancestor long ago? Maybe we share a purpose? I miss the rabbit hole and the time before time. I saw the rainbows dance on the buttercup flowers forever. I looked forever into the mirror. I sorted single blades of moss into tiny gardens forever.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Training for Disaster
Could reacting too quickly be more dangerous than not reacting at all?
As I flash into conciseness I notice my unusual surroundings. I followed a professor to get an assignment and ended up standing there, not quite sure where he had gone or how long I'd been there. It was the end of day and I was running out of dry places to wipe my nose. I should have seen where the professor went. I notice 2 men talking on the other side of the room. I know I don't belong here, this is the back of the police training lab and I'm from the electronics tech department. The small technical building housed both departments so close I could hear the grunting below and so synchronized that my schedule included the same electives. One man explains to the other. Even though violent situations are rare they train and train and train so the students can react, when only a few seconds makes the difference between a live officer and a dead one.
I feel nervous, as I wonder; what if the professor doesn't come back? Could I even find my way out? I didn't even feel safe there. I'd displayed my lack of coordination in self defence and even passed, due to sympathetic grading, but the students were well trained. What if someone saw me here and didn't recognize me? I breathed a sigh of relief, remembering the many ways I had embarrassed myself. Even if I got locked in, it would just be another thing added to a long list of perceptual mishaps everyone had come to expect.
As the professor exits his office becoming visible, I blow my nose on in the last dryish corner of my coat, so I can get a breath of air. I'm glad I can take a bit of extra time before I react to what I see. I'm not going to defend myself aggressively. I can get down on the ground cover my neck and "fight like a quaker". The moves from self defence would be offensive if used in a non-threatening situation, but by the time I understood a threatening situation really existed, I'd be dead.
I wonder how quickly officers can see. Certainly they can see faster than I can, but are they always right? Could reacting too quickly be more dangerous than not reacting at all?
As I flash into conciseness I notice my unusual surroundings. I followed a professor to get an assignment and ended up standing there, not quite sure where he had gone or how long I'd been there. It was the end of day and I was running out of dry places to wipe my nose. I should have seen where the professor went. I notice 2 men talking on the other side of the room. I know I don't belong here, this is the back of the police training lab and I'm from the electronics tech department. The small technical building housed both departments so close I could hear the grunting below and so synchronized that my schedule included the same electives. One man explains to the other. Even though violent situations are rare they train and train and train so the students can react, when only a few seconds makes the difference between a live officer and a dead one.
I feel nervous, as I wonder; what if the professor doesn't come back? Could I even find my way out? I didn't even feel safe there. I'd displayed my lack of coordination in self defence and even passed, due to sympathetic grading, but the students were well trained. What if someone saw me here and didn't recognize me? I breathed a sigh of relief, remembering the many ways I had embarrassed myself. Even if I got locked in, it would just be another thing added to a long list of perceptual mishaps everyone had come to expect.
As the professor exits his office becoming visible, I blow my nose on in the last dryish corner of my coat, so I can get a breath of air. I'm glad I can take a bit of extra time before I react to what I see. I'm not going to defend myself aggressively. I can get down on the ground cover my neck and "fight like a quaker". The moves from self defence would be offensive if used in a non-threatening situation, but by the time I understood a threatening situation really existed, I'd be dead.
I wonder how quickly officers can see. Certainly they can see faster than I can, but are they always right? Could reacting too quickly be more dangerous than not reacting at all?
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