Chain of Events

When I was a little girl living in Maine, I can remember driving with my dad one day up the turnpike. We stopped to pay a toll and as we drove out from under the toll booth area I looked over and in the car next to us (pulling out at the same time) was someone we knew. If my memory serves me correctly their name was "Chamberlain." We waved and they waved, and everyone drove on. The whole experience blew my mind. I thought to myself " what if we had taken an extra 30 seconds to leave the house, or what if we didn't get all those green lights." I was only 9 or 10 at the time but I understood that randomness of an event like that and that everything had to be just so in order for us to see our friends.

Since then I have always been fascinated by time and events and wondering if I did or did not do something that would have some cataclysmic result.

The movie Sliding Doors illustrates my point exactly.

Anyway....

I was taking the trash out tonight and as I raised the lid of my big curb container I was surprised to see how full it was. For a moment I had forgotten that I did NOT put the trash out on Monday morning. When container is less than half full I just feel like it's a waste of every ones time to put the trash out twice a week. I would imagine the driver being very happy to see a few less cans on his route.

But tonight when I lifted up the lid and remembered what I had not done, it got me thinking..."what if the few extra seconds he saved by not having my can on the curb got him to the end of the street that much earlier and then that got him back to the station (or whatever you call it) earlier than normal where he..... " my thoughts trailed off. But I think you get my point.

So there I was standing by my trash, trying to imagine what benefit or loss those 30 seconds that I "gave" to my garbage guy had on his life! Had I unknowingly altered the path of his existance forever?

Man, I need to stop watching movies!