Forward Vision

Recently I was standing on the new concourse of Kings Cross Station in London, waiting for a Saturday train up to Peterborough, off to attend a family birthday. My aunt was celebrating her 92nd birthday after a full life. She had been on the staff of Countess Mountbatten in India during the last days of British rule. She had hunted tigers on the back of an elephant, she had seen the great wealth and the extreme poverty of the sub-continent, and she had met both Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohandas Gandhi, the renowned Mahatma, in Ahmedabad. She remains a remarkable and active woman. Anyway, I digress. Waiting for my train, I did what I do on such occasions to relieve the boredom, I watched the people around me. Individually, people are fascinating. As a group, they become irritating. One encounter I was close enough to witness involved a middle-aged man, tall and bulky, and a young woman, probably in the 18-22 age range. The man walked past me heading towards the St Pancras exit while the woman was heading towards him and the train platforms, a ubiquitous takeaway coffee in hand. As the two neared, she raised the cup, tipped back he head and took some coffee. In doing so, she lost her view of the way ahead and walked into the man. Big guy, small woman . . . she lost. The man muttered something and continued walking. The collision however caused the coffee to fall to the floor. After a few steps, he looked around and was greeted with a sarcastic "Thank you" from the woman. He responded " You just walked into me", and turned back on his way. He was right, I saw it. Perhaps he could have offered some sympathy for the spilt coffee but his demeanour said “this is the last straw”. Crowded London can sometimes be a place for experiencing the worst of people. Do I mean the man or the woman ? Perhaps either, or both. This reminded me of an article on BBC News a couple of weeks ago where a woman in Birmingham had fallen in the canal while texting on her phone. Luckily she was rescued by a passer-by. This is not a new phenomenon. Forty years ago, my youngest sister walked into a lamp-post while looking in a different direction. Many tears ensued but she was only about 6 or 7 at the time. I don't recall her ever doing it again. It's all about paying attention to what is important. There are so many distractions today that the phrase "taking your eye off the ball" has more relevance than ever. I keep on eye on my surroundings, or at least I think I do. Stating the obvious, multi-tasking can be dangerous if one of the tasks is walking. Concentrate on what you are doing, unless you want to lose your skinny latte or fall in a dirty canal. Be warned.