Jaywalker II

to cut the crap, Atlas sided with the wrong side and was punished by zeus, who had him hold Gaia and the heavens apart. while more rightly portrayed as holding 2 spheres apart, it is quite common to find the foamer titan portrayed as holding a huge globe, the earth. more like getting pinned down by it, because its just massive. leaving aside the squabble on whether greeks always thought the earth to be flat or had discovered that it was a sphere through observation of ships from the horizon, one would indeed wonder what supported atlas as he supported earth and heaven. if i did not remember wrongly, Plato answered it in the Republic as being a huge celestial tortoise, supported by another celestial tortoise below, and another below, and all the way down to infinity and the Creator's intention.

i was reminded of this poor titan as i was crossing the road. more like jaywalking the road. since drinking from the chalice that was Dangerous Living, i have not looked back. dangerous living is fun and i always look for ways to regress towards infinite fun. so now i also jaywalk when there are vehicles on the road and when they travel fast too. one particular red vios had to ebrake just so that i would still live to cross the road again. that begs the question on why i crossed the road, but thats for another time. because it was fun. and the driver, a woman in her 30s was shocked. her face was white as sheets, i saw it from across the illegally tinted glass.

just minutes later i was at another crossing, near my place, where normally, nobody, save a few losers, ever bothered about the traffic light. it was pointless anyway, since the traffic light was meant for buses going into the interchange. and buses are not despatched very minute anyway, especially from this mininode. but at that very moment there was a whole mix of people waiting on the little island for the green man to flash. ns boys, ahsohs, ah lians, ah bengs, heartlanders, banglas. peculiar. i was being a man and interested to not let down my jaywalker credentials so i took 1 step out on the road. and i could feel all the puny little eyeballs staring at my figure from behind. then i took another step for mankind and i was 1/3 across the lane.

and then someone shouted, "小弟!", and i had to turn around and see who called out. it was this lauchio with a chariot and she had just done her shopping at the nearby ntuc. not typically verbose when alone with strangers, i just rose my eyebrow in bewilderment and hoped that she would explain why she was calling me, and not someone else.

gesticulating wildly, she mouthed the words "MaTa". and instantaneously without comprehending what she meant i stepped back on the curb. and then a white car with lights passed by and this puny spfsgt stared daggers through me. phew. this is what i call civic mindedness. if not i would have just gg-ed on the spot.

im quite glad that she was there to warn me. the foreigners there all pretended that they were watching an eclipse or looking for chewing gum on the ground. this incident changed completely the way i look at lauzhabors. they are no longer the pests that block my way, but fellow singaporeans who have helped me and will receive my help. i promise.

but jaywalking is still fun.