GavinBelfast

Back when I was in college, one of our tutors told us the story of how he met his wife. He was a boring man and at the time the story was boring but for some reason it stayed with me.

It revolved around him buying a bottle of port, if he hadn’t bought it he’d never have met her, she drank port and he was the only person who’d brought it to the party, something like that, so this gave them a connection, that was his “in”.

Had he not decided earlier in the day to buy that port, if he’d bought vodka or whiskey, they’d have never met, his life therefore would’ve went down a very different path and he would’ve probably turned out to be a very different person.

One seemingly insignificant decision proved to be probably the most pivotal moment in his life.

If thought about all this a few years after, that’s some awesomeness right there, that one thought that he’d had, “buy port”, basically dictated what became of him. Everything we do every moment of the day, every thought and every action, they all have untold repercussions, scary and fuckin amazing at the same time.

I could decide, “I’m gonna go over to Windsor tomorrow and take some pictures”, might be nothing, just get some pics, go to work, go home. Or tomorrow might be the day where some old housewife who lives near Windsor forgets she’s put the gas cooker on and decides to light a smoke in her kitchen, causing a massive explosion that I just so happen to be caught in. I might die, I might die because the ambulance gets to me too late because a 17 year old decided to have a few drinks, drives and crashes his car, causing a traffic jam.

So many little things, innocuous, seemingly unconnected can have such impact.

Another example (cus they’re fun to write).

In Belfast city centre, a street cleaner misses a banana skin, later on some unfortunate soul slips on it, they’re fine but during the fall a few coins escape their pocket, the same few coins that I myself may happen upon later in the day, the same coins that I buy a Lottery ticket with in a nearby shop, my numbers come up, badda-bing, millionaire Gavin, you’re all fucked!

Had the street cleaner picked up the banana skin, none of that would’ve have happened.

Ohh sweet causality, what a fucked up and beautiful thing you be.