Feel The Pressure

Those who have been following the blog will already know the outcome of this accident (see blog March 28 2012). I have told you of the injuries received and the incidents during the recovery, but let me just continue, to run through the accident itself. My mind was obviously wrapped up in considering the form of the presentation. Including the facts, and also how to make it entertaining. Planning to terrify the other students with exaggerated talk of fearsome arachnids and their habits. Understanding that ‘spirit of the audience’ feeling. If you got the audience on side, then you could do almost anything with their support. The delight I was experiencing was obviously real joy. Real joy, that I was in possession of the spider’s nest and joy, at the possibility of what it may have meant socially. I was never one of the ‘in’ crowd at school (that is one of the greatest understatements), but it would have been good to actually have people talk to you in a friendly interested way apart from your brother or sister, as was usually the way. And certainly, as sisters got older and changed schools again, and brothers played with ‘little children’ (of the same age as them) I tended to find I was a bit isolated. Yes, I was in the chess club as well. Not a geek.

But back then, it was pretty cool to be into chess. It was the era of Fisher and Spassky and, the now famous, and still considered, ‘competition of the century’, the 1972 World Chess Championships. The fact that it involved a Russian and an American held unbelievable significance. For the first time since 1948, a player from outside the Soviet Union had gained the right to play in a match for the World Chess Championship title. At the time the entire world was on the brink, with the cold war and all the pressure of nuclear deterrents. Chess became the most symbolic of fights. I think it’s a shame that major disputes can’t be settled the same way today. Each country or religion who disagrees with another, finds a champion (can you imagine the bidding war that could create?) and the matter is settled in a best of five or seven games. To be the final decision and no debate will be entered into. Imagine that. No innocent civilians being killed, no destruction of property. A suitable intellectual competition, that produces a result that everyone must abide by. How civilised.

That was obviously well back in my subconscious. Back then I enjoyed the process of chess. Even if others didn’t play it. Right then, as I raced towards school on my bicycle, I had the best talk planned. I was finally going to be a real hit in the classroom. I was very focused on my presentation and subsequently, not on the road. Today, I am aware of the offence to ‘drive without due care and attention’.

(Continued tomorrow)