FIrst Law Of Emotion

What makes me stop, I now wonder?

That question was stopped and waiting for me a couple of weeks ago at the intersection of 103 Ave and 121 St in the unlikely shape of a woman stopped in the middle of the intersection while she aimed a smartphone east at the morning sky.

It was the highlight of my bicycle commute to work that day. The woman was evidently so arrested by the swirls of red and orange and blue and pink, so taken by the sound of the sunrise that she did what she hadn't planned on doing, which was stopping to capture the scene, cars on the obsidian streets around her be damned.

That image returned this morning as I pedalled across the 142 St bridge, looked right, and saw this.

10.22.15
And I stopped.

Standing still by the bridge railing as cars and trucks streamed by, I bent back and fished my phone out of the panniers and made it all stand still with a click. Besides the glory of the Turner sky, I noticed how surprisingly difficult it is to actually stop and restart. So much easier to glance and keep going. Saves muscle work. Also quiets the voice that says, get to work! Indeed, a body in motion tends to remain in motion unless acted on by a superior outside force.

So, I guess, for one, a sunrise is a superior outside force. And the fact that it got me to stop suggests a tentative answer to the question at the top of the blog. Perhaps, a body in emotion tends to remain in motion until acted on by a superior outside force that gets inside.






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