Change and the Ensuing Chaos
I’m reading a book called Born on a Blue Day. It’s the biography of Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant with synesthesia (among other things). This blog entry is not a review of this book (as I haven’t even finished it yet), but I am very much enjoying it. It is probably one of the few biographies that I plan to read more than once. Something I noticed about Daniel is that I can relate to him in a lot of ways - and not only because I am also a synesthete. Some of his idiosyncrasies are things that apply to everyone, but for him they are amplified and thus inside of him create a quandary.
Look at his struggle with change. He has mentioned several times in this book that it upsets him very much when there is a change to his routine. He likes order and structure and certainty. He enjoys routine and it bothers him very much when, for example, he is unable to drink his tea at the normal time one day. While it is an everyday issue for Daniel, it is also an issue for people in general. People don’t like change. When a change occurs, Daniel may have a small meltdown and struggle to cope. And then some people just forget that they have a brain.
It has been almost a week since Hurricane Ike hit and our city still has a long way to go before it has recovered. Half of the greater Houston area is still without power. Most of the street lights are not working, which means they are turned into four-way stops. What amazes me is that people know exactly what to do at a normal four-way stop, complete with stop signs. But when an intersection that usually has a stoplight is turned into a four-way stop, people panic. They just don’t know what to do, and I really can’t help but continue to wonder: why the fuck not?!.
They forget to stop. They stop for way too long, and pass up their chance to go. They cheat and go when it’s not their turn. They cheat and go across with the car in front of them instead of stopping and waiting through the next cycle until it is their turn. They decide that they have the right of way and go when it is obvious that other cars are already going. They just plain lose their brains and all sense of logic. It really makes me wonder how many people on the road have taken a driving course. If they have - could they really forget such rudimentary knowledge as the proper routine to follow when coming to a four-way stop?
It boggles my mind. It frustrates me. It really makes me sad.
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:15 am
Good to hear you’re alive and well. I was thinking about you. I have a nephew that live in a rural area outside of Houston. With no power, his well stopped working, he has no lights or anything. With no ATM’s available, he’s been broke. To make matters worse, his wife is very sick with cancer. Like, really sick. She was locked down in the hoxpital for a few days, so he couldn’t even see her.
Dig this. My wife’s uncle, who has never even met ny nephew (opposite sides of the family) heard about his predicament and put the word out, got a generator and drove it down to him. He’s about four hours away.
Maybe news like that can cher you up a little. There are still good people out there.
/-)
sgr
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:17 am
Oh yeah, click my name and you’ll get to my new blog. I finally paid fot a host.
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:36 am
OMG! I completely forgot you are in Huston :| (sometimes i think my fucking brain takes vacations without me..)
Well, Am glad you are alive and well, saw a lot of photos and video from down there and it looked bad.
Though besides the usually “recovery is underway” news we get up here, nobody seems to be making any sort of deal about it. No fundraising, no presidential announcements, etc. I guess everybody is like “Been there, done that”.. :|
Yeah, about the driving. That just people in general. I fucking hate other drivers. I’ve been tailgated and hocked at, given the finger, etc all for driving the speed limit. Yes, driving 80 in an 80 zone apparently is tantamount to being an asshole.
Fuck these people, I have a baby in the car, like the big-assed-sign in the back window tells them as they are tailgating me at 80. If she wasn’t in the car I’d tap the breaks and fuck them over. (Their insurance would have to cover it… What? A squirrel jumped out in front of the car… It’s not my fault you were so far up my ass you couldn’t stop in time…). Its like they expect I’ll speed up if they do it.
People also see to have forgotten what a blinker is and how to use it, or when they have the right of way to change lane (not in the middle on an intersection…) or that a red light does indeed mean stop, and you can’t turn left on a red light.
Ok, I’m ranting on your blog.. sorry :(
I’ll go rant on mine now…
*hugs*
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:44 pm
I truly believe that right now we are witnessing the decay of a society. The US is crumbling and no one has the guts to put a stop to it. It’s all about two things, money and PR. No one wants to lose money and no one wants to appear that all they care about is…not losing money.
I, for one, don’t mind change. I wonder if sometimes that makes me apathetic.
September 25th, 2008 at 6:27 am
[…] this rant is actually carried over from my friend Kelley’s blog. She mentioned that people in Houston seem to have forgotten how 4way stops work since there […]
September 29th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Sounds like a book I would like to read, always interested about fellow synesthetes :)