Time

Yesterday I spent most of the evening after work shopping for a "classy" looking outfit to wear this weekend, but then I got home just before nine and flipped through the channels to Canadian Idol.

Then I heard a sound outside my window that sounded like a great piece of plastic being cracking on the busy road below. I turned around and looked out the window to see a red car screeching to a halt and parking on the side of the road, and people running from three directions to the aid of a dog now lying motionless on my front lawn. The neighbour owning the dog came running as well to see his dog surrounded by strangers, still breathing but shaking with the last bits of life. After about ten minutes of tenseness and hurried cellphone calls, the group of strangers brought together by being at the wrong place at the wrong time made arrangements to take the dog for help when the dog breathed his last. People who had never met before patted the back of the driver of the red car and asked if he was okay while he cried. They hugged. Hands were shook. Comforting words were exchanged.

It’s interesting to me how people can be brought together in the occurrence of tragedy. That people will pass each other on the street on a daily basis and never share so much as a smile or a wave, but at misfortune and heartbreak humanity unites.