Monday, February 21, 2011

A portrait in deserved hatred

This picture was taken at the intersection of Himes and Hillsborough avenues in Tampa. This car is in the left turn lane waiting for the traffic light to turn green so they can proceed eastbound on Hillsborough Avenue. You can't see them in this photo but there are several cars behind this one, waiting for the same thing.
They're going to be there a while.
Do you see the large gap between the car and the white line in front of the crosswalk? It's about the length of one car. In that space is a weight-sensitive sensor that tells the light whether anyone is waiting for it to turn green or not. If not, it never does. Ever. As things stand right now, no car in this lane will ever move again. Either their engines will overheat and seize up or burn all the fuel in their gas tanks. Many of the drivers, now stranded, will pool their remaining resources, adapt and work together to create a new civilization there in the left turn lane. Weaker ones will undoubtedly die off in the process. Over time, a community of sorts will form there with a social structure, some sort of commerce-based economy and a form of government. The now-adult children who were never picked up from daycare that afternoon long ago will drive by, hoping to catch a glimpse of the woman they once knew as their mother, yet knowing that she's long gone. "She's intersection folk now", they'll say ruefully, as they drive past on their way to Sonic for a delicious cream slush. 
That's one possible, albeit unlikely, scenario.
What probably did happen is all the other lights at the intersection cycled through from green to yellow to red at least once before something flickered faintly deep within the festering brain-like mass of goo crammed between the ears of the driver of this car, alerting them that something isn't right and through some sort of primitive internal reasoning, or trial and error, they moved their car up enough to register their presence with the traffic light's sensor. This may have been aided by horn-honking or yelling from one or more of the drivers stuck behind in an ever-lengthening line of cars, all of whom presumably began the day under the mistaken assumption that at no point would they need to be responsible for operating more than one motor vehicle at a time. 
Why did the driver stop where they did? Why wouldn't they just pull all the way up to the front? It's hard to say. Questioning the reasoning of the terminally oblivious is never a good idea. Either way, the person driving this car, regardless of gender, race, religion or any other personal characteristic of any kind whatsoever, is a portrait in deserved hatred.

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