The Intersection
Red light… Red light… Red light This is how I wake up. I see a faint red light off in the distance and then it disappears only to reappear again a few seconds later. Everything else around me is black. As I slowly wake up from this deep sleep I gradually become more aware of my surroundings. In fact, this is not much like waking up at all. If there were a sensation of being born, then this would be it. Not like being born a baby but more like being born an adult that is fully aware. I am standing. Red light… Red light … Red light…
As I a come into this awareness, I realize that I am staring at a crosswalk sign that is flashing “do not walk”. Then I realize that I am standing at the edge of the sidewalk on the corner of the street. This intersection is a little different than normal; instead of two roads intersecting, it is a spur where eight different streets intersect at one point. This causes the intersection to be larger than the standard intersection of four roads. Other than twice the streets as usual, this is the typical intersection. Each sidewalk at each corner is lined with people. So many people, that everyone is barely staying on the sidewalk without falling off like a bowl filled to high with cereal and milk.
The bizarre thing about this intersection is that all eight crosswalk signs are flashing “do not walk” at the same time. It seems that half or part of them would be flashing, “walk” and the rest would be flashing, “do walk” at the same time. Everyone seems to be standing in anticipation. They are waiting as if at any moment the sign that they are facing will change to “walk”. Cars? This thought immediately flashes through my mind. The entire time I have stood, there has not been one car pass. I look in all directions and still do not see any cars. This makes no sense, with this many roads intersection and with this many people standing on the street corner, there should be some sort of flow of traffic; but there is not.
As I look behind me for any car whether driving or parked, what seems like mild form of hysteria breaks loose. I immediately spin my head around and notice that the crosswalk sign has changed from “do not walk” to “walk”. Not just the crosswalk sign that I am facing but all the crosswalk signs at the same time have changed from “do not walk” to “walk”. Everyone one is crossing the street in all directions at the same time. It is now that I notice for the first time that there are no crosswalks painted on the streets. Since there are no painted crosswalks, everyone just seems to head for the middle of the intersection. I do not move from my spot on the sidewalk because there is about to be mass confusion when all these people meet in the middle of the intersection.
What I observe next completely surprises me. When these hundreds of people meet in the intersection at one time, no one is angry, upset, impatient, or frustrated. Everyone seems to be moving around and have a purpose in mind but no one is actually going anywhere. People are walking and talking in groups of two, three, four, and five. Every once in a while you see a larger group than this. However some groups stay together for quite some time and others are constantly changing size and members. It almost looks like a choreographed dance in the middle of the street. This social dance is a little different than any that I have ever seen. For this dance seems to have no unwritten rules about preference of one person over another.
I slowly decide to venture out to the intersection to get a closer look in hopes of figuring out what is going on. I see an old man with a cane laughing with a teenage guy that has a lip ring and a tattoo around his right eye. There is a man with a briefcase hugging what seems to be a vagabond. There is a group of men to my left crying with each other. Just beyond them I see a group of women talking very excitedly. I hear the cry of a baby behind me and see a mother holding her child. Two young girls come over and play with her other two young children while she consoles her infant child.
I decide that soon, all these people must be on their way, whether to work, school, home, or the store. But as I wait, no one seems to be going anywhere. Instead this social dance seems to keep going with out losing its ease of movement or its intensity of excitement. However it never seems to get out of control or too much to bear. At this point I become indignant. Don’t these people realize that they need to be moving along? There is work to be done. Soon there will be cars that will need to get by. There are tasks that need to be accomplished and people that will be waiting on important meetings. No one seems to care. Are these people lazy or are they irresponsible? Maybe they are both? Maybe they are crazy? I become more perturbed and upset at the lack of motivation to proceed on his or her way that everyone seems to have. These people care about nothing but themselves. They have things that they need to do, yet they just keep moving in the middle of the intersection, dancing this social dance.
But everyone seems happy. No one seems stressed or anxious like they have somewhere to go. Maybe, that is it. This is a group of people that have no purpose and nothing to do during their day. But I look around and see men and women carrying portfolios. Children and teenagers are carrying backpacks. Some are carrying sacks of groceries while others seem to be carrying their lunch in a bag or a box. These people must have somewhere to go yet they do not go. I decide at this time that I want nothing to do with these people because they are just standing around doing nothing like they care about no one but themselves.
I look up and I see that the crosswalk sings are now all flashing red again. They are all flashing “do not walk”. No one seems to take notice of this. If there are those that do, they do not seem to care. They are going to continue this chaotic social networking or whatever it is that they are doing. Bitterness now sets in. They do not care about getting their tasks done or about getting anywhere and now it is obvious that they do not even care about following the rules. Then a thought comes rushing through my mind. What if this mass of diverse people is just the opposite. What if they are not selfish at all, but on the contrary, they care about everyone but themselves. As soon as this thought floods my mind everything begins to fade out of focus and begins to turn black. I turn towards the direction of the crosswalk sign.
Red light… Red light… Red light… I once again realize that all I can see faintly in the distance is the crosswalk sign. This time however the words are different. As everything fades out and I lose consciousness, the last thing I see are the flashing words on the sign.
This is love…This is love… This is love… This is………..
