Within an Hour

Late this week thanks to our Net connection going down at home. It's amazing how bereft we've felt being disconnected to the outside world!

Anyway, I'm posting this clandestinely at work, so here it is, my Sunday Scribblings post:

A baby is born. An elderly man stops breathing and dies. An earthquake causes a huge wave that will eventually wash thousands away. A plane crashes into a building causing damage that will lead to its collapse. In a garden somewhere a flower unfurls. In a nest high in a tree a chick hatches from its egg. A woman completes her shopping and drives to the local school to pick up her son. Another woman finishes sewing her thirtieth pair of running shoes of the day and wipes the sweat from her brow.

A man plants a tree in an urban park. Another man chops down a tree in a rain forest. A fallen trunk is painstakingly carved into a canoe by a group of young men who are taking part in a community probation project. A tramper pauses while crossing a river to roll a smooth, cool pebble between their fingers. Rain falls on the coast. Drought-stricken farmers brush dust from their eyelids.

A student finishes their homework and logs onto Myspace. A swimmer takes off her goggles and cap and heads for the showers. A body builder flexes his muscles and readies his mind for another deadlift. Someone decides at the last moment not to mug the old guy standing at the cash machine. Another is overcome by the heat of their anger and beats at their partner until she stops moving and lies pale on the floor. A cat licks at the kittens suckling at her belly. A horse nudges her foal to its feet as it squints at the world in which it has just found itself. An insect unfurls its wings and flies into a spider’s web, where it hangs, frantically buzzing.

An asteroid burns up as it enters Earth’s atmosphere. On the ground a young child points to a falling star. A ceasefire is broken. A car bomb explodes. A man with little intelligence and even less understanding of what he is done is led to an electric chair. A woman who has swallowed ten small balloons filled with a bitter white powder is stopped as she walks through border control.

A young boy kisses a young girl. Two teenagers wander gossip about a film star who has been admitted to an eating disorder clinic. A department-store worker hangs up sale signs. An admin assistant accidentally hits ‘reply all’ and creates a major diplomatic incident. Another hits save two seconds before his computer crashes.

Big things happen. Little things happen. Momentous decisions are made. Inconsequential decisions are procrastinated over. Historically important events are witnessed by millions. Significant ones pass unnoticed. The minutiae of everyday existence continues to ebb and flow without anyone particularly paying any attention. Life happens in an hour.