Today was a nice day driving home from work -- it seems to me there were only a few idiot drivers, instead of the usual migratory mass of them (who all happen to be wanting to go somewhere ever so important all at the same time and in as little time as possible -- little old ladies in big cars beware.). But it was hot. Hot like a ... big burning ... hot sun . Or something. Yesterday the radio said it was 100 degrees Fahrenheit! What the?! Triple digits? Someone shoot me. With a big, cold gun, filled with ice cubes and ice cream and popsicles. Or something. (It's the heat -- it's getting to me.)

I just finished reading If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, by Jon McGregor. What a book. Man oh man. I grabbed it for like 2 bucks at Chapters a month ago or so, and started reading it, then added it to my continuously mounting to-read pile. I finally gave it the honour of being the next one to go. And I'm glad I did. Just a really very great book. He writes in a very different way -- when he writes that someone is saying something, he doesn't actually do what most every author does -- using quotations. For example, most authors will say something like this: And Billy said, "I rule you. Bow to me, slave woman." But McGregor would write it like this: And Billy said I rule you, bow to me slave woman.

It sort of threw me off at first. He writes the story almost as if it's a free verse poem. But it isn't. It is just very poetic.

Anyway, it is quite incredible. When I finished it this afternoon I (silently) had a fit. I just sat there thinking, "Geeeeeeeeeeeez." It wasn't a cliff-hanger or anything, but it was just so beautiful and thoughtful and made me really think about people. I talked about it a long, long time ago (ie. many, many posts ago), about trying to see people as individuals, human beings with their own struggles and dreams and pasts and relationships and thoughts and such. And this book was like that -- made you really think about all that goes on around you, the things that happen to the people you bump into on the street.

It was actually all quite ironic, because I watched the movie Run Lola Run last night. (What a crazy movie -- it was really good. More foreign films, here I come!) There are a few times in the movie where Lola is replaying certain situations and depending on how she interacts with a person, each time you see that person experiencing a different future. It made me think about how we affect people, how what we say or don't say or do or don't do here or there affects a much broader picture than we may realize.

If anyone saw the movie Butterfly Effect, you'll know what I mean. While I didn't think the movie was all that awesome at the time (though its been awhile and I don't even remember what happened), it really got me interested in the theory -- that small things affect big change. The possibility that a butterfly's wings on this side of the world could create a ripple that ultimately starts a hurricane on the other side of the world, to me, is amazing.

It just says a lot about our choices, I think. About the possibilities that we create and destroy at the whim of a thought or action. You would expect such an idea to change the way we behave, but I know from my own life, it rarely does. I suppose it's easier to forget, to stop thinking about the people I talk to or pass on the road or order my lunch from, to just think of myself and my choices and where I want to end up in life. What a sad, sad reality, considering the unfathomable opportunities for affecting people I could have should I chose to recognize them.