hat tricks

There are few things more confusing than the moment right after something unexpected happens. 

You're a four-year-old child. You get dropped off at preschool for the first time. There are twenty other kids in the class. You're scared, and the world before you is a constant surprise. Walking in on your knobby little legs, holding your mother's hand tightly, hoping to God she doesn't leave you. She does, though, and you are alone for a time. Eventually another kid spies you, recognizes you as someone they might like. You've got the same lunch bag after all. You introduce yourselves by playing together as if you've never not done that.

You're driving your car, and suddenly you're sideswiped. It's surprising and scary. But the car that hit you doesn't stop, and you're left in the middle of the road hoping someone saw, noticed you in the middle helpless, unsure of what to do next. There's this huge bit of you that prays for that; for someone to not only have seen you, but to recognize that it's not OK that that just happened, and help you through the aftermath.

You're out with your friends, and suddenly someone asks you for your number. It's surprising, but not quite scary. This has happened before, and it will probably happen again. Because what ends up happening is you end up going out with that person. You like each other for a while, or at least you think you do. You really might. Who knows? But, eventually, people tire of each other. It takes longer for some than for others, but eventually you either need to break it off, or reinvent what that relationship is. That doesn't mean it's any less romantic. It only means that you change, and you do it together. You decide to be someone who sees the other and recognizes them, helps them out, and does it because they love them.

Twenty years later, you're in each others weddings.
A police officer comes and helps you out.
You're married, and you're still happy about it on a daily basis.

But these things happen every day, and the opposite probably happens more often. That kid gets rejected, insurance doesn't come through with that hit-and-run, and you're lucky if you get married then divorced. People just work it out until the end.*


*This wasn't supposed to be sad, but re-reading it, well, it is. Kind of.