We Are All Murderers

I know the heading sounds paranoid, and like it's the name of some cheesy scary movie, but it is true. I'm not saying that everyone has gone out with a knife and stabbed someone, or went out with a gun and shot someone, but I'm saying we've all been part of a murder. Everything you do sets a chain reaction, and everything in the end, ends in death. Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils ... - Louis Hector Berlioz. Say you dropped your metro card, and bent to pick it up, and your bag slips off your shoulder. A boy stops and picks it up for you. You thank them, and his 20 second delay means he'll think he's late and hurry across the street. A driver will be annoyed by the way he holds up his hand to signal "I'm here. Don't run me over." So the driver will go a little faster to let out his anger. The driver will ALMOST collide with someone at an intersection, and that person will be a 16 year old girl taking her drivers' test. She will get scared, and accidentally step on the gas pedal. When she corrects her mistake, she is a block off course, and when she backs up, she hits a man pushing his cart. He dies. You see, you were not a direct murderer. But if you had not dropped your metro card.... Then another person would have died. You can rewrite the story with you NOT dropping your metro card and it will end in death. It's not your fault. You can't control it. Even if you stay locked up in your room, that will cause a chain reaction to the people that are worried about you... As long as you don't kill someone with your hands, or a gun, or arrange their death, or know about a death and don't report it you are innocent. Then again, because you dropped your metro card.. somebody got married, found a hundred dollar bill when they needed it, got the job they wanted, sold the house they had been trying to sell for years for 3 times more then they had expected, bought the house of their dreams for three times less than they expected... I'm not saying that all this will happen over an hour, a week, or even a year! But the smallest thing sets a ripple in the pond. Sure the pond will look the same, but there will always be another rock in it. Xena said that. I can't find the direct quote. Sorry. I know this sounds far fetched, but try it yourself! It could take 2000 degrees of separation before something exciting happens. But you still started it. Of course, something triggered you dropping your metro card... It's scary, but fascinating at the same time!