Wednesday, December 13, 2006

No Minute Like the Last Minute


There's no minute like the last minute.

It's remarkable how calm and under control can go to frantic and spiraling downward in a matter of seconds. A lost email from Saturday is finally found on Tuesday and my peaceful world unravels in a frenzied search for telephone numbers and questions of availability and raised voices. A casting company has scheduled auditions for 9 in the morning and it's 4:25. Though temporary and brief, madness reigns. It is at this moment that the telephone, which has been unusually silent all through the day, begins to ring incessantly and at this moment that the delivery companies choose to arrive with Christmas packages that must be inspected and signed for. It's a simulcast of chaos.

Order is eventually restored, as of course it must be, and the day winds up. We look back and laugh at our own selves and at how we behaved. I think we are fragile beings, far more susceptible to unanticipated events than we want to believe and far more easily panicked than we want to admit. The illusion of being in control is powerful and we all share it to some degree so an unexpected crisis can be beneficial - it can help bring us back to our senses. Like it or not, we all need a reality check every few thousand miles.

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